RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With a low-level representation, Brazil reiterated this Wednesday before the Ibero-American Summit in Andorra its commitment to supply covid vaccines to “brother countries in the not distant future.”
Brazil “is working for equitable access to vaccines for all countries,” said Kenneth Félix Haczynski da Nóbrega, Brazil’s Secretary for Bilateral Negotiations in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.
Da Nóbrega spoke about the need to strengthen “health diplomacy” to favor access to vaccines against covid-19 to less developed countries, a task in which Brazil can add its efforts.
From the middle of this year, Brazil will be self-sufficient in covid-19 vaccine, said the diplomat, which “opens the prospect of a greater Brazilian contribution to the supply of vaccines in the not distant future.”
Da Nóbrega recalled that Brazil is in its “most difficult phase” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, with some 378,000 dead and 14 million infected, and recalled that to fight this disease, “there are no shortcuts” outside science.
He took the opportunity to thank Spain for the recent announcement of a donation of intubation equipment for Brazilian hospitals. He highlighted the advantages of the national immunization program responsible for the current vaccination against covid-19.
Da Nóbrega clarified at the beginning of his presentation that his country’s participation in this summit “does not imply recognition of the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro” in Venezuela, a position that has been maintained by the government of right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro.
Already at an Ibero-American ministerial meeting held on December 1, 2020, the then Brazilian Foreign Minister, Ernesto Araújo, protested the presence of diplomats of Venezuela’s “dictatorial regime” together with “representatives of free nations.”
Considering the rank of the Brazilian representative, Da Nóbrega’s intervention was the second to last in the list of speakers at the Andorra summit. It preceded the speech offered by the Paraguayan vice-chancellor, José Antonio Dos Santos.
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