MEXICO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2021) Guatemala has requested Russia to return money paid for the batch of Sputnik V vaccines over a delay in deliveries, Health Minister Amelia Flores told the Congress.
"We ask ... for a refund. If at some point they have the opportunity to sell it, we will pay upon the delivery," Flores said on Tuesday, when asked about the status of the purchase agreed on last March.
Only a small part of the total number of Russian vaccine doses paid for by the Guatemalan government has been delivered to that country.
Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo, who also took part in the meeting with the congressmen, noted that the sides are negotiating to revise the Sputnik V contract to include the one-component Sputnik Light.
Sputnik V was approved by Guatemala at the end of February, and the first batches of the vaccine were shipped in May. The country is also using Moderna and AstraZeneca coronavirus shots supplied free of charge or via the international vaccine-sharing COVAX mechanism.
After talks with Brolo last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the two countries are discussing a possibility of accelerating the supply of Sputnik V vaccine to Guatemala.
