The top German diplomat said ahead of a G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Tuesday that he was looking forward to talks with Russia and China, whom he again accused of using COVID-19 vaccines as a soft power tool
MATERA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th June, 2021) The top German diplomat said ahead of a G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Tuesday that he was looking forward to talks with Russia and China, whom he again accused of using COVID-19 vaccines as a soft power tool.
"It is... important for us to sit down with countries such as Russia and China, to which we often say that we do not agree with their vaccine diplomacy," Heiko Maas told reporters in Matera, Italy.
The vaccine development is not a matter of short-term geopolitical advantages, he went on.
"Rather, we must fight this pandemic together, because no one is safe until everyone is safe," the minister added.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in May that Russia was a victim and not a culprit of what she called "vaccine wars." President Vladimir Putin blamed the EU's reluctance to give Russia a marketing authorization for Sputnik V vaccine on pharma giants outside the EU trying to control the lucrative European market.
