Hungary has delivered some 200,000 jabs of Covid vaccine to Istanbul to be shipped to African countries as part of a donation by members of the Turkic Council.
Peter Szijjarto, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, presented the doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine to Turkic Council Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev at a joint press conference on Thursday.
Speaking at the event, Szijjarto said that the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic had hit the world harder than expected. “It has made it even clearer that vaccination is the only way of protection and that those who have not been vaccinated are exposed to a much greater risk this time than in previous waves,” he said.
Szijjarto said that Hungary has sufficient vaccine supplies for domestic vaccination and has extra reserves to help other countries that are in a difficult situation. “This is why we immediately said yes to the Turkish initiative in the framework of which Turkey and Hungary are each to donate 200,000 doses of vaccine with Azerbaijan donating an additional 100,000 doses to the most disadvantaged African countries with the coordination of the Turkic Council, to save hundreds of thousands of lives,” he said.
The Turkic Council is an intergovernmental organisation established in 2009 to promote comprehensive cooperation among Turkic speaking states. Its members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Hungary has had observer status in the organisation since 2018.
Speaking at the event, Szijjarto said that the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic had hit the world harder than expected. “It has made it even clearer that vaccination is the only way of protection and that those who have not been vaccinated are exposed to a much greater risk this time than in previous waves,” he said.
Szijjarto said that Hungary has sufficient vaccine supplies for domestic vaccination and has extra reserves to help other countries that are in a difficult situation. “This is why we immediately said yes to the Turkish initiative in the framework of which Turkey and Hungary are each to donate 200,000 doses of vaccine with Azerbaijan donating an additional 100,000 doses to the most disadvantaged African countries with the coordination of the Turkic Council, to save hundreds of thousands of lives,” he said.
The Turkic Council is an intergovernmental organisation established in 2009 to promote comprehensive cooperation among Turkic speaking states. Its members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Hungary has had observer status in the organisation since 2018.