The country’s leadership will act in the interests of its citizens despite the pressure, said Peter Sijärto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary
Peter Sijärto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary, said that there is a “strong lobby” in Europe against vaccines produced outside the European Union (EU).
“There is a strong lobby against vaccines that come from outside the European Union. But this is life, we are already used to it”, – he said in an interview with Russia-24 on Friday.
Asked whether he was under political pressure from the European Union for Hungary to abandon the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, Sijärto said that the country’s leadership would act in the interests of its citizens despite the pressure.
“We have shown many times that no lobby can make us not put the interests of the Hungarians first”, – he said. – “Our approach is very simple: if the vaccine proves to be safe, we will allow its use, and vaccination in Hungary will be voluntary and free.”
Hungary was the first country in the European Union to express interest in receiving the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The efficiency of the Russian vaccine to be supplied to Hungary is over 92%.
Mikhail Murashko, Head of the Russian Ministry of Health, welcomed the upcoming arrival next week of Hungarian doctors to Russian laboratories who will be familiarising themselves with the Sputnik V vaccine in detail. The process of laboratory and clinical trials, as Murashko noted, takes some time. Only after its completion can serial production of the vaccine begin, and then the process of its distribution.