Vjosa Osmani crashes with Borrell for distribution of vaccines

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has expressed disappointment with the distribution of anti-COVID-19 vaccines.

It has had a clash with EU Foreign Policy Commissioner Josep Borrell, during Turkey's Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

I don't see it as the right moment to point our finger at each other, rather, that we are first grateful for the support we have received and secondly address the challenges we have faced. Mr. Borrell mentioned the COVAX initiative that Kosovo has benefited from. But while we benefited and saw that not every distribution was equal to”, Osmani said.

So I think it's very important that important criteria be respected for every time and not sometimes. So the lessons we have learned from this extremely difficult situation around the world are that the part of the world that is very powerful can help us countries that are not so strong and that just equality and support is very important. Those who need more help must accept it, and when we talk about it, we cannot be sure until all are safe. We must bear in mind that this should serve for the remaining <x1).

That's what Borrell said they didn't interfere with the way the COVAX distributed the vaccines.

“Someone was talking about justice and that COVAX wasn't always right. You know what? What we've done in Europe is we've established the basis for the distribution criteria of vaccines only from our sources, so we've given them to COVAX but we haven't interfered in the way that COVAX has done the distribution of vaccines because this program is the independent function based on IOM and GAVI<0> criteria.

During the debate, Osman is asked how he views greater international co-operation to move forward.

“Absolutely, but it should start with mutual respect, because just because some countries are smaller, it doesn't mean they don't have the right to speak the truth, like I did earlier when I was talking about inequality in the distribution of vaccines, because if we don't point out the mistake, we can't fix it”

It's very important that we talk about every country that's been touched by the pandemic and none that's been touched, and for this reason when he mentioned the fact that certain criteria have not been fulfilled or respected this has nothing to do with those who financed it, on the contrary, I think that every country is very clear that every country is grateful for the help received, but that doesn't mean that we should accept the help and shut down. It means we have to accept help and talk about how to solve these problems for the future and each country, no matter how small it can contribute to this”.