OPENSSL_internal:CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED error when vector_store retriever is invoked

Question

I'm in the midst of developing Genai app with

• private data stored in vertex ai vector db
• llm as gpt4
• langhain as orchestrator

When I invoke vector_store retriever I get error:

OPENSSL_internal:CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED.

The vector store index is being created with same credentials.

Here is sample code:

aiplatform.init(credentials=credentials, project=PROJECT_ID, location=REGION, staging_bucket=BUCKET_URI)
my_index = aiplatform.MatchingEngineIndex.list()[0]
my_index_endpoint = aiplatform.MatchingEngineIndexEndpoint.list()[0]
embedding_model = VertexAIEmbeddings(model_name="textembedding-gecko@003")
vector_store = VectorSearchVectorStore.from_components(
    project_id=PROJECT_ID,
    region=REGION,
    gcs_bucket_name=BUCKET,
    index_id=my_index.name,
    endpoint_id=my_index_endpoint.name,
    embedding=embedding_model,
)

# Initialize the vectore_store as retriever
retriever = vector_store.as_retriever()
# perform simple similarity search on retriever
result = retriever.invoke("What are my options in breathable fabric?") #<<<<<ERROR here

google.api_core.exceptions.ServiceUnavailable: 503 failed to connect to all addresses; last error: UNKNOWN: ipv4:34.128.134.161:443: Ssl handshake failed (TSI_PROTOCOL_FAILURE): SSL_ERROR_SSL: error:1000007d:SSL routines:OPENSSL_internal:CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED