EU to send 10m vaccine doses to Bangladesh

The European Union has pledged to provide Bangladesh with 10 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

But the bloc's Ambassador in Dhaka Rensje Teerink acknowledged that this may not be enough and said efforts were being made to bring more doses to the South Asian country.

"For Bangladesh, we promised 10 million doses and we are aware that it’s not enough and I hope we can provide more.

“Of course, it’s not in the hands of EEAS (European External Action Service) and it’s also in the hands of EU Humanitarian Aid. But we will continue to really push for that," he said during a webinar organised by Cosmos Foundation on Thursday.

His remarks came in response to the recent criticism of developed countries, including the EU, for their failure to cooperate with poorer countries during the pandemic, reports bdnews24.com.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen recently lamented the fact that developed nations were throwing away expired vaccine doses that they had stockpiled as developing nations cried out for more vials.

He said, “Developed countries -- they are sitting with all the vaccines. They can't use them anymore so they are throwing them away. What kind of ethical and moral value is this?”

Referring to Momen's remarks, Teerink highlighted several initiatives taken by European countries to support the activities of the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX.

"We can say actually the EU has been driving force behind the global response to COVID-19," he said.

The EU plans to share 200 million vaccine doses before the end of the year, while its member states have pledged 16 billion euros to support the global response to the pandemic, according to Teerink.