BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Serbia on Sunday donated a first batch of 8,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to North Macedonia, which has yet to deliver its first jabs.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, attended a delivery ceremony at a border checkpoint, praising the friendship between the two neighboring states in the Balkans.
Serbia, a country of 7 million, has so far vaccinated around 600,000 people, mainly with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, and to a lesser extent with the Pfizer jab. The country has been one of the most successful in Europe in terms of how quickly the vaccine was implanted among its population.
In contrast, North Macedonia, like most other countries in the Western Balkans, has not yet secured a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine for its population of 2.1 million. Many of the states in the region are reconsidering their strategy of waiting for doses provided by the West and are considering buying Chinese and Russians.
“A friend in need is a friend in fact,” said Vucic, while Zaev praised him for showing “true solidarity in practice.”
The transfer of the vaccine had to be delayed last week because Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech demanded “additional documentation” from Serbia about the re-export of its vaccines, said Vucic.
Vucic’s opponents in Serbia consider his vaccine donation to North Macedonia yet another of his populist political movements to portray him as the main regional leader. They say that many in Serbia are still waiting in line to be vaccinated with their preferred Pfizer vaccines.
Earlier this week, North Macedonian authorities signed an agreement to purchase 200,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, with which they hope to launch their vaccination program later this month.