The Austrian Ambassador to Vietnam, Hans-Peter Glanzer, presented Austria’s donation of 50,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health on 16 November 2021. During the presentation, Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen enthusiastically thanked him for the vaccine donation and underlined its positive contribution to strengthening bilateral relations. The donation to Vietnam is part of an ongoing series of deliveries to countries that are in urgent need of vaccines.
In this pandemic, no country stands alone. With donations of more than 2.6 million vaccine doses, Austria is once again demonstrating its commitment to fighting the pandemic worldwide. We simply cannot afford to see blank spots on the vaccine map,
said Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg.
Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Linhart also praised the vaccine delivery to Vietnam. In addition to protecting people with the donated vaccine doses, Austria is strengthening its diplomatic relations both through these bilateral deliveries and in its role as EU coordinator for vaccine deliveries to the Western Balkan states.
Next year we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our first diplomatic relations with Vietnam. I am pleased that we can further strengthen our partnership with this delivery, while at the same time helping to improve the epidemiological situation. With deliveries like this one, Austria proves itself a reliable partner in times of crisis,
said Foreign Minister Michael Linhart.
For Minister of Health Wolfgang Mückstein, vaccine deliveries like the 50,000 doses sent to Vietnam also play an important role in fighting the pandemic.
A global crisis demands global responses. The pandemic will not be over until we have conquered the virus everywhere. That’s why we need a worldwide increase in vaccine rates to fight the coronavirus. Austria must do its part by sharing vaccine doses with the countries that need them most urgently. We are in the fortunate position of having sufficient vaccines available,
said Minister of Health Wolfgang Mückstein.
To date, support has been provided bilaterally to Ukraine, Georgia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iran and Costa Rica as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, while India received an aid shipment of antiviral drugs, oxygen tanks, and nasal cannula.
In addition, Austria is providing 5 million euros to the international programme COVAX AMC along with nearly 1 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that can currently be spared in Austria. COVAX supports a total of 92 low and middle-income countries that cannot otherwise afford to purchase sufficient vaccines on the market, by providing them with donor-financed vaccine doses.
