Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Wednesday rejected accusations of any wrongdoing in the process of procuring COVID-19 vaccines from the Chinese manufacturer Sinopharm.

He said that the vaccine procurement was conducted through private companies and the order was made through the Chinese embassy and the Chinese Foreign Ministry after being requested by Chinese authorities.

“I completely reject any wrongdoing or illegal activities. We have been making utmost efforts to procure vaccines via all possible channels. The Health Minister said that after waiting for two weeks for activities from the Chinese embassy, we couldn’t get contacts directly, so we ordered through private companies that weren’t confirmed by the Foreign Ministry, which is why the advance payment was withdrawn. We are waiting for the shipment to arrive through the Chinese Foreign Ministry, i.e. through the Chinese embassy,” Zaev told a reporter when asked to comment on reports of the Italian newspaper La Verità about the country’s procurement of Chinese vaccines.

He added that the country has sent letters of intentions via dozen private companies from Austria, Great Britain and the United States in addition to the official channels of the embassies in the country.

Zaev stressed that documentation involving the procurement of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines had been regulated. “All necessary decisions were made, but in the end we decided to procure via the Chinese embassy, via China’s Foreign Ministry to get the 200,000 vaccines we ordered,” he said.

The PM confirmed that the government has made an order through private companies. “I said we were helped by Power China, the mother company of Sinohydro, the company constructing roads in North Macedonia,” Zaev said adding that the state-owned Power China is one of the nine candidates bidding to construct the Chebren hydropower plant.