BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – The leader of Serbia on Wednesday expressed his gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping for 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and said he was proud that Serbia had become the first European country to fire its population. in China.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said after the meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Belgrade that, by receiving the Synopharm vaccine, ‘the citizens of our country have a deep trust in the Chinese vaccination and thus also in the Chinese state. and Chinese experts have. ‘
This was not the first time that the populist president had publicly praised China and its Communist Party leader. Vucic kisses the Chinese flag when China delivers masks and other protective equipment in March 2020, and he criticizes the European Union for an alleged lack of solidarity at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Vucic was less critical of the EU this time around, although he said he felt ‘sick’ when he learned that some unnamed member states needed the vaccine doses several times above the number to vaccinate their population while delivering to poorer countries. withhold.
Although Serbia is formally a member of the EU, they have turned to China and Russia at the same time, promising to supply large quantities of the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine.
Vucic’s office said in a statement on Wednesday that it was talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin and requesting him to deliver additional doses of the Russian vaccine “so that Serbian citizens can get reliable protection against the coronavirus as soon as possible.”
Vucic also said that Serbia would build a facility with the help of Russian experts to manufacture the Sputnik V vaccines.
There are widespread concerns in the EU about the safety and efficacy of Chinese and Russian vaccines, as they did not follow all the required trials before gaining approval in their countries.
However, Hungary breached the EU’s position by granting provisional licenses to both Sinopharm and Sputnik V. Russian scientists say Sputnik V looks safe and effective against COVID-19, according to early results from an advanced study published in a British medical journal on Tuesday.
Vaccination of vaccines turns into a foreign policy issue in the Balkans, which has promised EU aid to secure through the UN-backed COVAX facility, but so far no shots have been fired by the program.
Serbia has managed to acquire the Chinese vaccine and smaller quantities of Sputnik V and the Pfizer-BioN-Tech vaccines through direct transactions, helping the country launch one of the fastest vaccination campaigns in Europe.
Vucic urged China to deliver the rest of the ordered vaccines in Serbia as soon as possible. He did not specify the quantity.