Coronavirus: China hits out at vaccine ‘hoarding’ nations during BRICS talks

Foreign Minister Wang Yi says that in contrast, more than 350 million Chinese shots have been sent to other countries

He also urges emerging economies in the bloc to stand against ‘unilateral acts under the banner of multilateralism’

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Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for BRICS countries to “continue to make vaccines a global public good”. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:00pm, 2 Jun 2021Updated: 11:29pm, 2 Jun 2021

The Chinese foreign minister has accused some developed countries of “hoarding” Covid-19 vaccines, but praised the BRICS bloc of emerging economies for doing the opposite and offering doses to other nations.

Wang Yi made the remarks on Tuesday in a virtual meeting of foreign ministers from the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. China, India and Russia all have vaccine makers.

“The coronavirus pandemic has seen cases growing in the global south and declining in the north – the hoarding of vaccines and control of exports from some developed countries is not unrelated to this,” Wang said during the talks hosted by his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

“China has provided more than 350 million doses of vaccines to the international community. This is in sharp contrast with developed countries that have adopted a ‘domestic first’ approach,” he said, according to a statement from China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday.

“We hope that BRICS countries will continue to make vaccines a global public good, and adhere to the principle of fair and reasonable distribution,” Wang said. “[We] support our vaccine makers to transfer their technology to other developing countries to co-produce vaccines.”

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar hosted the BRICS meeting on Monday. Photo: AFP