MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. Russian vaccines are in demand in many countries in the world, and the number of interested countries is on the rise, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on the outcomes of a meeting with Speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea Park Byeong-seug on Monday.

"More countries are opening themselves up to Russian vaccines. Meanwhile, those who do not allow the use of other countries’ vaccines and do not produce anything themselves are then forced to introduce a lockdown," Volodin told reporters.

The Russian State Duma website informs that Park Byeong-seug has offered to expand cooperation between Russia and South Korea in the sphere of vaccine production and technologies. For his part, Volodin commended the approach of South Korea to saving people’s lives, noting that Seoul does everything possible to establish the production of the Sputnik V vaccine. He added that during the meetings, the senior lawmakers discussed the implementation of the interparliamentary format, so that as many countries as possible take part in the discussion of protecting people’s health and fighting COVID-19.

"When it comes to the life and health of citizens, we need to find solutions based on caring for people, so that political competition or the desire to make money from people’s health take a backseat. This is unacceptable," Volodin said.

"It was agreed that all the issues brought up [during the meeting] would be discussed in detail by a high-level interparliamentary commission," the Russian State Duma website says. The South Korean parliament speaker invited Russian colleagues to visit South Korea in the fall of 2021 to hold the first session of the interparliamentary commission. According to Volodin, the meeting’s agenda will include the creation of new technologies and the development of solutions to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joint production

Russia and South Korea are carrying out active dialogue on the joint production of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, the republic’s Ambassador to Moscow Lee Sok-bae stated earlier. On April 20, Yonhap News Agency informed that a subsidiary of the GL Rapha company would begin production of Sputnik V in South Korea in May. The production will be export-oriented, the agency pointed out, as the vaccine has not been registered in the country yet. On April 15, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced that it had signed an agreement on technology transfer with the company.

So far, the Sputnik V vaccine has been registered in 66 states with a total population of over 3.2 bln people. The efficiency of the vaccine reaches 97.6% based on the analysis of the COVID-19 infection rate among Russians vaccinated with both components of the vaccine from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021.