In Russia, unfortunately, there is still not enough production capacity to satisfy the requests of everyone abroad for the supply of the Sputnik V vaccine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
He recalled that to date about 70 countries have recognized “Sputnik V” at the national level for distribution on their territory.
“Now it is important for us to ensure the fulfillment of those contractual obligations that we have already signed with these countries and which are being fulfilled taking into account the situation with demand in the Russian Federation for Sputnik V. Unfortunately, we still do not have enough production capacity to satisfy all those who want Sputnik V to receive in order to vaccinate their population”, – Lavrov said during the webinar Russia’s Foreign Policy: Successes, Challenges, Tasks and Prospects held at the United Russia site.
“That is why, but not only because, but because we always stand for cooperation, we are transferring, we are negotiating with countries that have an appropriate pharmaceutical base – we are transferring production, licensed, to India, and we are now negotiating with China, with Belarus, with a number of other countries that have the necessary production base”, he said.
Earlier, the Argentine authorities asked RDIF to urgently send the contracted doses of the second component of Sputnik V and warned that the supply agreement could be terminated, the newspaper La Nacion reported, citing a letter from presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini. She later stated that Argentina continues to work with Russia on the supply of vaccines, cooperation between the countries is good, and doses of the second component of the drug have already been received. The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this issue on Friday, explained that this is not a disruption, but a delay in deliveries. He stressed that the priority is to meet the vaccination needs of Russians.