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EU stokes divisions by neglecting Balkans in vaccine rollout Europe’s most volatile region looks to China and Russia after vaccine deliveries face delays 22 January 2021 - 09:16 Jasmina Kuzmanovic Serbian President Aleksandar Vuci. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/BLOOMBERG/OLIVER BUNIC The coronavirus exposed lingering divisions in the Balkans, and now Europe’s most volatile region is once again cleaving along geopolitical and ethnic lines over efforts to get people vaccinated.
The EU has pledged to give six prospective members €70m to buy Covid shots, but deliveries are facing delays. That has empowered Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to leverage his links with China and traditional ally Russia into pledging vaccine donations to North Macedonia and to the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Vaccines turn into geopolitics in Balkans
Jasmina Kuzmanovic, Misha Savic and Jan Bratanic, Bloomberg
Jan. 22, 2021
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Military personnel and members of the public line up to receive the Sinopharm covid-19 vaccine in Belgrade, Serbia, on Jan. 19, 2021.Bloomberg photo by Oliver Bunic.
The coronavirus exposed lingering divisions in the Balkans, and now Europe s most volatile region is once again cleaving along geopolitical and ethnic lines over efforts to get people vaccinated.
The European Union has pledged to give six prospective members 70 million euros ($85 million) to buy covid shots, but deliveries are facing delays. That s empowered Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to leverage his links with China and traditional ally Russia into pledging vaccine donations to North Macedonia and to the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Bosnia plans to order Russian and Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines fearing that deliveries ordered under the COVAX scheme for poor countries and from the European Union will be too little too late, officials said on Thursday.