According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania is ready to share life-saving vaccines with our eastern partners. The technical coordination will be provided immediately to ensure that the first vaccine doses reach our eastern partners as soon as possible.
“Today, we have an opportunity to demonstrate the Lithuanian solidarity. I would particularly like to emphasise the situation in Ukraine. The country has tackled two challenges simultaneously: the pandemic and the Kremlin's military aggression. The vaccination process in the countries of the European Union is fast and smooth, but we are not safe until our neighbours are also safe," said Landsbergis.
Lithuania plans to allocate 100, 000 vaccine doses to Ukraine, 15, 000 to Georgia, and 11, 000 to Moldova by September. The issue of the distribution of remaining vaccine doses will be considered in the near future. According Landsbergis, Lithuania will now confirm the amount of vaccine doses to be given away during the summer: "If the situation allows, we will be reviewing this decision. Our partners need a lot of vaccine doses. We hope that other EU member states will follow Lithuania's example”.
Through this decision Lithuania will contribute to the Team Europe package, which aims to support partner countries in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences worldwide.
EU Member States are assisting third countries either through the COVAX Facility, which is a global collaboration aiming to secure access to the COVID-19 vaccine in low and middle-income countries, or through an EU vaccine sharing mechanism that aims to structure the provision of vaccines shared by member states with partner countries on a bilateral basis.
Lithuania has consistently raised the issue of the need to facilitate access to vaccines for eastern partners within EU formats and looks forward to work closely with EU institutions in delivering these vaccines to eastern partners.
