Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for a joint effort by the BRICS countries on the development of the coronavirus vaccines as he suggested that Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 could be produced in China and India, which are members of the five-nation bloc.

"We believe it is important to speed up the establishment of the centre for development and research of BRICS vaccines, which we agreed to do two years ago, upon the initiative of our South African friends," Putin said while addressing the 12th BRICS summit via videoconferencing.