DHAKA, May 25, 2021 (BSS) – Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today expressed his optimism to get first consignment of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine from next month as Dhaka has almost completed process of purchasing 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China.
“The deal in this regard (purchasing vaccine from China) is almost final. It will be complete very soon,” he told reporters following a meeting with the visiting UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir at the Foreign Service Academy.
Ther foreign minister said his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi assured him to make a ‘stable supply’ of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh.
“He (Chinese foreign minister) told me Chiona considers Bangladesh as a friendly country and is ready to provide as many as vaccine we need,” Momen said referring his recent telephone conversation with Wang Yi.
The foreign minister said Dhaka has already finalized to get required Chinese vaccine for the months of June, July and August as Sinopharm produces vaccine after getting order.
Dr Momen said the discussion regarding purchasing vaccine from Russia is also at the final stage.
“Our discussion over buying vaccine from Russia has been already done,” he said, adding that currently negotiation between Dhaka and Moscow is going on over modalities of the agreement of buying Russian sputnik vaccine.
However, the foreign minister didn’t disclosing the exact number of doses that Bangladesh is going to buy from Russia.
During the telephone conversation with Momen on Friday, Wang Yi, who is also the State Councilor of China, also announced that China has decided to provide 6 lakh more COVID-19 vaccine doses to Bangladesh as second batch of gift.
During the conversation, Momen also requested China to take initiative for Chinese COVID-19 vaccine co-production in Dhaka.
In reply, the Chinese foreign minister assured that he will encourage Chinese vaccine producer to go for co-production with Bangladeshi pharmaceuticals companies.
On May 12, China handed over first batch of five lakh doses of its Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh as gift while Dhaka is keeping its efforts on globally to get access to enough inoculation.