Photo: People's Daily App

A batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines, donated by China, arrived at the airport in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday. This is the first batch of vaccine China has donated to an African country. 

Equatorial Guinea's VP Teodoro Obiang Mangue welcomed the vaccine at the airport in person. The vice president, on behalf of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, sincerely thanked China and expressed his great appreciation for the vaccine assistance provided to Equatorial Guinea, noting that the aid is the fruit of the excellent relations between the two countries.

Mangue was quoted as saying in a Xinhua New Agency report that he believes in the safety and efficiency of Chinese vaccines, and will be among the first in Equatorial Guinea to be vaccinated.

"Faced with the pandemic, no country, no matter how powerful, has been spared. However, in this context of crisis, only China has extended its hand to Equatorial Guinea, which has become the first African country to receive Chinese vaccine aid, and we are grateful for it," Mangue noted. 

The anti-pandemic cooperation between the two countries is an example for the world on how to work together to fight against pandemics, according to Mangue. Since 2020, China has sent medical teams and donated medical supplies to Equatorial Guinea, while the latter also donated $2 million in assistance to China. 

Qi Mei, the Chinese ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, was quoted as saying in the Xinhua report that despite huge domestic demand for vaccines, China is determined to overcome the challenges to make vaccines an accessible and affordable public product for developing countries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing on Tuesday that the vaccine aid to Equatorial Guinea is an important move to fulfill China's commitment to making vaccines global public goods and a concrete step to act on President Xi Jinping's words at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19 in June 2020, during which Xi reassured that African countries will be among the first beneficiaries of Chinese vaccines.

Global Times