MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Russia and Belarus are setting up a joint venture in Belarus to manufacture the Russian anti-coronavirus vaccine, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday at talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Roman Golovchenko.

"On January 4, we delivered another batch of testing systems to diagnose the novel coronavirus infection. Apart from that, in line with the decision of the Russian and Belarusian Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, joint production is being set up in Belarus to manufacture anti-coronavirus vaccines," he said.

The Belarusian prime minister earlier spoke about plans to gradually localize the production of the Russian anti-coronavirus vaccine in Belarus. According to Russian Ambassador to Minsk Dmitry Mezentsev, joint production of the Sputnik V vaccine in Belarus is expected to be launched in February or March. He also said that the Belarusian side had signed contracts for the supplies of the Russian vaccine in January-March and was looking at increasing purchases.