MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th June, 2021) The European Commission makes a grave mistake by making coronavirus vaccines a matter of ideological dispute, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said.
"By turning vaccines into the issue of geopolitics and ideology, the European Commission is making a serious mistake," Szijjarto told Russian broadcaster Rossiya 1.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the slow approval of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine by the European Union is due to the bloc acting in the interests of big pharmaceutical companies.
Hungary is the first EU country to register Sputnik V. In May, the Russian embassy in Budapest announced that Hungary had received all the contracted doses from Russia. Budapest is also said to be discussing domestic manufacturing of the vaccine with Moscow.
Meanwhile, the approval of Sputnik V within the European Union has been tinged with controversy as various officials and politicians spoke out against the use of the Russian vaccine for various reasons. Russia, on its part, has raised the issue of possible political bias against the vaccine, outlining that its advanced efficacy has been proven in clinical trials.
