Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke out against the politicization of coronavirus vaccines during talks on Thursday, March 25, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Wang Yi assured that China will support the Turkish side in the fight against the pandemic until Ankara achieves complete victory, RIA Novosti reports.
The Chinese Foreign Minister stressed that “some forces are trying to politicize and stigmatize vaccines,” however, he said, this does not contribute to international cooperation in the fight against the epidemic.
Cavusoglu, in turn, said that Turkey “highly appreciates and hopes for further deepening cooperation with China in the field of vaccines, opposes the politicization of vaccines.”
The Chinese Foreign Minister is on a Middle East tour from March 24 to March 30, he has already visited Saudi Arabia and Turkey, next in line are visits to Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.
Turkey began vaccination against coronavirus with the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac in January. According to clinical trials published by the Hacettepe University of Ankara, the effectiveness of the CoronaVac vaccine from the Chinese company SinoVac is 83.5%, it prevents hospitalization in 100% of cases.
Earlier, on March 14, it became known that in Turkey, within the framework of the Safe Tourism Program, an unscheduled free vaccination against coronavirus of workers in the tourism industry began.