US donates 2.5 million anticovid vaccines to Taiwan

First modification: 19/06/2021 – 20:12Last modification: 19/06/2021 – 20:10

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Washington (AFP)

The United States announced on Saturday that it shipped 2.5 million covid-19 vaccines to Taiwan, which is experiencing a surge in infections despite having successfully managed the pandemic for a long time, potentially drawing ire from Beijing.

“Our donation of 2.5 million doses of vaccines is on its way to Taiwan, whose health partnership with the United States has saved lives here, and around the world,” US diplomacy spokesman Ned Price announced on Twitter.

It is triple what a delegation of US senators who visited the island promised in early June.

Taiwan, which is excluded from the World Health Organization (WHO), had been praised abroad for the effectiveness of its initial response to the pandemic, with very few infections last year.

However, the island of 23 million people faces a major outbreak of the virus and accuses China of hindering its efforts to obtain immunizers.

China claims Taiwan as one of its provinces and tries to keep the island diplomatically isolated.

Washington broke diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to recognize Beijing as the sole official representative of China. But the United States remains Taiwan’s most powerful ally and its main arms supplier.

© 2021 AFP

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