With squabbling between EU member states over vaccine supplies and the rollout intensifying, as the third wave of the coronavirus sweeps the continent, Serbia is able to boast the highest per-capita inoculation rate in continental Europe with 2.1 million of the country's 7 million population having received at least one jab.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. Source: European People's Party / Flickr
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in 2018. Source: European People's Party / Flickr
However, in an interview with the FT the country's president Aleksandar Vučić has said he is concerned about the threat that potential curbs on EU vaccine exports in light of severe shortages could have on his country's vaccination programme.
Belgrade has thus far heavily relied on Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm jabs, but it is also deploying imported Oxford/AstraZeneca and BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines imported from the European Union.
"How can they do this? I think they won’t do it because that would be unbelievable," Vučić told the FT. "Everyone in Serbia [would] be furious."
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The Balkan country - which is in the process of applying for EU membership - was the first in Europe to use the Sinopharm vaccine and has also acquired Sputnik V jabs from Russia numbering in the hundreds of thousands. It is also expecting a shipment of a further 450,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from EU factories next month.
Denouncing the EU plans as "ugly", Vučić said: "We have already paid [for the Pfizer vaccines], and we have an agreement for the tranches. Pfizer has the tranches. I don’t understand how they can remove me, who has already paid, and who has an agreement for the day of arrival."
Brussels has floated the idea of discretionary blocks to non-member states with higher immunisation rates than the EU, or those offering jabs made in the EU to "vaccine tourists" or import vaccines or their ingredients from the bloc without exporting any in return.
Vučić has predicted that, if the consignment from Pfizer arrives, together with the one million more Sinopharm doses expected next month, 37% of Serbia's adult population will be fully vaccinated by the end of April.
"I will vaccinate the whole nation," he said.
Serbia's internet portal for vaccine appointments also allows foreigners to apply, and thousands from across the Balkans and beyond have applied for the surplus free of charge.
Read more: Russia looks to produce Sputnik V vaccine in Italy following demand surge
With many European countries struggling to inoculate even their most vulnerable citizens, last week Serbia began vaccinating asylum seekers at migrant camps. The country has also immunised 4,000 health workers in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Serbian President dismissed criticism about "vaccine tourism", saying: "We deliver our vaccines for free to everybody," he said.
"We need to be helpful and supportive to all the others because even if we are fine with the inoculation process, it doesn’t mean we will be fine and secure if the people in the region are not."
Vučić's Serbian Progressive party has a supermajority in the country's parliament following an opposition boycott of recent elections, and the president maintains a firm grip on the Balkan nation. His critics accuse him of backtracking on democratic reforms and eroding press freedom.
Last year, democracy watchdog Freedom House criticised the "years of increasing state capture, abuse of power and strongman tactics employed by Aleksandar Vučić".
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While the Serbian government is in the process of applying for membership of the EU, Vučić has been carefully cultivating ties with both Russia and China - the latter he has referred to as Serbia's "best friend".
This delicate balancing act has made Serbia the envy of its neighbours, frustrated with the sluggish rollout of western vaccine products.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he had studied Serbia's vaccine programme before his country became the first EU member state to administer both Sputnik V and the Sinopharm vaccines.
Serbia also has plans to construct two new vaccine plants, making the country "fully independent of import", Vučić said.
A packing and distribution facility for Sputnik V is set to open in May with plans for its eventual production in Serbia.
In October, a Sinopharm factory - built as a joint venture between China and the UAE - is set to begin production of 24 million jabs annually.
In the interview, Vučić admitted that the deployment of the Sinopharm vaccine had been a "political risk" on his part. While he declined to disclose the price, Belgrade has said that it will share information from the inoculation programme with Sinopharm.
Relations between Belgrade and Beijing have become much tighter in recent years with Chinese companies constructing a large number of infrastructure projects in the country.
The ties between the two have led to heavy criticism in Brussels and Washington. Last year, the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said that Serbia was on the way to becoming a "client state" of China.
In January, a group of MEPs sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, warning of the "impending environmental damage" caused by Chinese industrial projects in Serbia, as well as China's "growing influence" in the country.
Read more: MEPs warn of environmental impact of Chinese industry in Serbia
The relationship between the two has deepened during the coronavirus pandemic, with Vučić publically kissing the Chinese flag following the arrival of a shipment of medical supplies last year.
Hitting back at accusations that he was pressured by Beijing to rollout the Sinopharm vaccine, Vučić said: "I was not blind, as some people might say," adding that he had personally contacted Chinese President Xi Jinping to look at options for buying the shot.
Vučić has also said that he himself will be vaccinated with the Sinopharm jab when the new batch of supplies arrives. He also said that the UAE's vaccination programme had inspired him. The country has been running Phase III trials of the Chinese shot.
Following the inoculation of UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum with the Sinopharm vaccine in November, Vučić said: "I knew that everything was pretty much OK, because [the Emiratis] scrutinised everything."
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