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LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - British foreign minister
Dominic Raab accused the European Commission of brinkmanship
over its threat to ban exports of COVID-19 vaccines, calling for
Commission head Ursula von der Leyen to explain her comments.
The European Union on Wednesday threatened to ban exports of
COVID-19 vaccines to Britain to safeguard scarce doses for its
own citizens, with von der Leyen airing frustration over a lack
of deliveries from AstraZeneca plants in Britain.
"I think it takes some explaining because the world's
watching... It also cuts across the direct assurances that we
had from the Commission," Raab told Reuters. "We expect those
assurances and legal, contracted supply to be respected.
"Frankly, I'm surprised we're having this conversation. It
is normally what the UK and EU team up with to reject, when
other countries with less democratic regimes than our own engage
in that kind of brinkmanship."
Raab said von der Leyen's comments contradicted assurances
he had been given by Commission Vice President Valdis
Dombrovskis and by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
"We were reliably informed that they weren't aware of any
plans to restrict lawfully contracted supply to the UK," Raab
said.
Britain has the fifth highest death toll from the
coronavirus pandemic, but has one of the quickest vaccine
rollouts among large countries, with over 25 million people
given a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The government says it is on course to have given a first
COVID-19 shot to half of all adults within the next few days,
hitting the milestone much quicker than European counterparts.
Raab said that the European Union had previously agreed with
Britain that during a pandemic, it was "wrong to curtail or
interfere with lawfully contracted supply".
"Keeping supply chains open, keeping trade and vital
supplies of medical equipment and vaccines is critically
important," he said. "We've all been arguing for this."
(Reporting by William James, writing by Alistair Smout; editing
by Michael Holden and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
