The Japanese government on Friday announced to donate more AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan as a part of Tokyo’s free vaccine aid initiative for the Southeast Asian countries.
During a press briefing, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Motegi Toshimitsu also stated that Japan has given out 25 million doses to other countries and is planning to hand out an additional 4.9 million jabs to Southeast Asian countries, including 2 million doses each to Indonesia and the Philippines, 500,000 doses to Vietnam, and 400,000 doses to Thailand, Taiwan News reported.
The foreign minister also said that another batch of AstraZeneca vaccine would be shipped to Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Japan has donated a total of 3.9 million COVID-19 vaccines to Taipei in five separate shipments since June, Taiwan News reported.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Joanne Ou also expressed gratitude to Japan for its latest offer, saying the move could help improve the country’s vaccination coverage and would further strengthen ties between Tokyo and Taipei.
This came after Taiwan reached a first-dose vaccination coverage of 60 per cent on Friday.
This support in form of vaccines by Japan comes amid Beijing’s uptick in military activity around Taiwan which lies at the western end of the Japanese archipelago.
Meanwhile, Beijing continues to claim Taiwan as its own territory and has never ruled out the use of force to capture the island.
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