China has stressed that it does not attach any political strings or economic calculations to carrying out vaccine cooperation with Bangladesh and other countries.

“The only purpose of China is to make vaccines a global public good that truly serves people’s interests and help the world defeat the pandemic at an early date. To this end, China will take further actions,” said Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Li Jiming on Monday.

While speaking at a signing ceremony of the local production of Sinopharm vaccines in Bangladesh, he said at least three deficits -- distribution deficit, production deficit and cooperation deficit -- need to be addressed.

The Ambassador thanked Bangladesh for respecting science, multilateralism and justice, and said he is sure that their anti-pandemic cooperation will only become stronger and more fruitful, leading to further contribution to the global fight against Covid-19.

“We’ll continue increasing production capacity steadily, providing more accessible and affordable vaccines to meet the needs of developing countries, and supporting the WTO in making an early decision on IP waiver,” he said.

Ambassador Li laid emphasis on working together to build a great wall against Covid-19, protect the health of people and humanity, win the victory over the pandemic with solidarity, and build a global community of health for all.

He said vaccines should be shared with greater intensity and speed to make them accessible to and affordable for developing countries around the world as quickly as possible, especially the least developed countries.

Li said China believes that tracing the origin of the virus is very important and it could give clues to predict and prevent future pandemics, whereas the Covid-19 origin-tracing is a serious scientific issue that should not be manipulated by politics, and can only be done by scientists, not by politicians or intelligence personnel of any country.

“Taking this good opportunity, I would like to make it very clear to our friends here that China doesn’t oppose origin studies based on science. What we oppose is origin studies based on politics and using politicized origin tracing as a tool to exhaust China’s diplomatic resources,” he said.

With full support from China, the phase I origin studies led by the WHO have reached conclusions widely recognized by the international community and global scientists, and it should and must be upheld as a guidance for future work, said the envoy.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque and Chairman of Incepta Vaccines Limited Abdul Muktadir signed the MoU from Dhaka while it was signed by President, China Sinopharm International Corporation Li Can and Vice President, China National Biotec Group Company Limited Zhu Jingjin from Beijing.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Health Secretary Lokman Hossain Miah, among others, spoke at the event.