Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Bisera Turkovic claimed on Tuesday that the batch of Covidshield vaccines delivered to the country was used by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as a tool of "pushing Serbian interests and establishing Serbia's dominating position in the region."
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) Foreign Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Bisera Turkovic claimed on Tuesday that the batch of Covidshield vaccines delivered to the country was used by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as a tool of "pushing Serbian interests and establishing Serbia's dominating position in the region."
On Tuesday Vucic personally accompanied a plane carrying 10,000 doses of Indian-produced Covidshield vaccines, licensed by AstraZeneca, to Sarajevo. The batch was a gift from Serbia to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On Monday, 20,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine were delivered to the other BiH entity, Republika Srpska, through Serbia.
"We are talking about pushing own interests and establishing Serbia's dominating position in the region and increasing its popularity. It would have been more valuable if we, for example, signed an agreement on delineating state borders or if Serbia recognized war crimes in BiH according to the court rulings," Turkovic was cited as saying by the Dnevni Avaz news agency.
The foreign minister also noted that the gifted vaccine is a "very cheap vaccine, used mainly in poor countries," and has no registration in the EU. She added that it should be tested by the BiH medicines agency.
In response to the criticism, Vucic told the press in the Sarajevo airport that he had no hidden intentions and simply wanted to help the neighbor as he was tired of empty promises.
"I am tired of empty words ... We expected to get vaccines from the EU, but we still did not. Did you get them in Sarajevo? No. Did we get them in Belgrade? No, none. We will express our gratitude when we receive the first shipment from the COVAX program," Vucic said.
Bosnian politician Bakir Izetbegovic praised the delivery of the vaccines from Serbia as a symbolic gesture of good will in his address later in the day to the House of Peoples.
Currently Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the most affected countries in Europe by vaccine shortages. The Balkan nation does not meet the vaccine storage requirements for Pfizer and is unlikely to receive any shipments through the COVAX mechanism in the near future.
Serbia is one of the leading countries in Europe by vaccination rates. So far, over 1.2 million people in the country have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, more than 428,000 got both shots.
