Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman on Friday donated 10,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to North Macedonia, saying that "efficient vaccination is the only way out of the Covid-19 pandemic."

“Efficient vaccination is the only way out of the Covid-19 pandemic, of course, while maintaining the necessary balance between gradually opening borders and people’s health,” he said in Skopje.

Assistance to North Macedonia is continuing because the Croatian government decided yesterday to donate another 20,000 vaccines, Grlic-Radman said.

North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Venko Filipce thanked Croatia for the donation. The additional 20,000 doses will be from AstraZeneca or Moderna, “which would be the first batch of that vaccine” in the country, he said.

Grlic-Radman said Croatia would continue to underline “the importance of Southeast Europe for the EU and support EU initiatives for delivering Covid-19 vaccines to countries in Europe’s immediate neighbourhood.”

“Only through joint effort and a solidarity-based approach will we create the conditions for sustainable social and economic recovery after the pandemic,” he said.