Beijing: Turkish Foreign Minister confirms Ankara will purchase Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has told his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, that Ankara will purchase the Chinese vaccine against the coronavirus disease as it considers it to be effective and safe, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Report informs, citing RIA Novosti, that the foreign ministers held a phone conversation on Monday. A source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry told Sputnik earlier that they had discussed the fight against the COVID-19 and cooperation on vaccines.

"Çavuşoğlu said that the Turkish side considers the Chinese vaccine safe and effective, had already announced that it would make an expedite purchase from China, and is ready to strengthen cooperation with Beijing in the matter," the ministry said in a statement.

The Turkish official also congratulated China on successfully containing the pandemic and praised Beijing's vaccine development achievements. Wang, on his part, noted that both countries are fighting the pandemic "side by side," supplying medical goods to each other and sharing experience as well as cooperating in Phase 3 vaccine trials.

"As of now, the second wave of the pandemic is spreading across the globe, the Chinese side is ready to stay firm alongside the Turkish people until the final victory in the war against the epidemic," the Chinese minister emphasized. He also added that the decision to purchase the Chinese vaccine had demonstrated Turkey's trust in China.

Earlier, the Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca said Turkey would purchase 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by April next year. The first batch of the Chinese company SinoVac vaccine will arrive in the country after December 11. Moreover, Turkey has announced plans to purchase at least 25 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.