Afghanistan Wants To Receive Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine As Soon As Possible - Ambassador

Afghanistan's request for Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is currently under consideration by the Russian government, and Kabul would like to receive the vaccine as soon as possible, Afghan Ambassador to Russia Said Tayeb Jawad told Sputnik in an interview

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2021) Afghanistan's request for Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is currently under consideration by the Russian government, and Kabul would like to receive the vaccine as soon as possible, Afghan Ambassador to Russia Said Tayeb Jawad told Sputnik in an interview.

Russia's special presidential representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, told Sputnik in January that Afghan companies were engaged in negotiations with Russian partners on conditions and volumes of the potential vaccine supplies.

"It depends on how the supply chain works here but for us it's a priority. We would like to see it there as soon as possible," Jawad said, when asked if he expected the first batch of the vaccine to arrive within the next few month.

"We appreciate very much that the Russian government is considering our request, we have submitted the request, and we hope to see actually this product, Sputnik V vaccine, being available in Afghanistan.

I personally myself and my staff, we vaccinated [already]. This would very good for us to have access to the vaccine," the ambassador continued.

The Afghan diplomat also expressed the belief that Sputnik V would probably be the first coronavirus vaccine available in his country.

"My last meeting [with Russian officials] was last week and I actually brought up this, and they said it's under consideration. Right now, of course, priority is actually to make the vaccine available to Russian citizens. We understand that. We welcome any kind of, any number [of vaccines] that is available because most probably, if it moves fast, that will be probably the first vaccine available in Afghanistan," Jawad said, noting that the vaccine would be on the agenda of the upcoming talks between Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Jawad also confirmed that had absolutely no complaints after he got inoculated last Thursday.