“The global recovery from COVID relies on international collaboration. We are all dependent on global supply chains - putting in place restrictions endangers global efforts to fight the virus,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said on Friday, Reuters reported.

The EU executive has backed Italy’s decision to block a shipment of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia.

“The PM did speak to (EU) President von der Leyen earlier this year and she confirmed that the focus of their mechanism was on transparency and not intended to restrict export by companies... we would expect the EU to continue to stand by its commitments.”