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Coronavirus pandemic

EU shows biased attitude to Russian COVID vaccines — Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister recalled that Russia has been in talks with the European Union on the mutual recognition of vaccines for quite a long time

BELGRADE, October 10. /TASS/. No agreement on the mutual recognition of coronavirus vaccines have been reached between Moscow and Brussels due to the biased attitude to Russian vaccines among other reasons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday after talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

The minister recalled that Russia has been in talks with the European Union on the mutual recognition of vaccines for quite a long time. "There are various reasons why this agreement has not yet been reached. There are objective reasons linked with the verification of corresponding procedures. But we see, and our European colleagues do not hesitate to say openly, biased attitude to Russian vaccines due to political considerations," he said.

The Russian top diplomat recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported the idea of lifting patent protection off COVID vaccines across the world. "This our position has not been changed. Regrettably, other countries, which manufacture these vaccines, did not share this position," Lavrov noted.

"Nevertheless, we see that most of the European Union countries are interested in the most comfortable conditions for contacts between people. I hope common sense will win the upper hand," he added.

Sputnik V has not yet been granted an authorization of the European Medical Agency (EMA) for the use in the European Union. The European Commission’s position concerning the Russian vaccine has not changed after the launch of the EU COVID-19 certificates system in early July. EU countries using the Sputnik V vaccine, such as Hungary, have the right to issue EU Digital COVID Certificates for this vaccine but other member nations can either accept these documents or not at their discretion.

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