China denies political motive in vaccine sales slowdown to Turkey

Sources from the Embassy of China in Ankara denied that the delivery of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines to Turkey was stopped due to political reasons. The reason for the interruption in deliveries is explained by a Chinese diplomat as a “massive vaccination campaign in China” that was completed on May 7, involving 300 million doses.

Duvar English 

China has denied allegations that the delivery of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines to Turkey was stopped due to political reasons.

Sources from the Embassy of China in Ankara told journalist Murat Yetkin from YetkinReport that the reason for the interruption in deliveries was a “massive vaccination campaign in China” that was completed on May 7, involving 300 million doses.

Previous reports on the delay in vaccine deliveries said that Beijing has been doing so as a reaction to Turkey's failure to ratify an Uyghur extradition treaty. 

Chinese sources told YetkinReport that there was “no connection with the pending ratification, no deliberate delay on Sinovac vaccine’s export to Turkey, and by no means with connection to political factors."

They also said that the deliveries will start again “as soon as possible in May” and Turkish-Chinese relations were not experiencing any political problems for the time being.

The full report can be read here