TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi on Tuesday announced that a team from the Indonesian Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) had paid a visit to the production facility of Sputnik V vaccine in Russia. She said that during the working visit of Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov to Jakarta on July 6

The visit indicated that the two countries are near to producing the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in tandem in an Indonesian facility. “Last month, the head of BPOM paid a visit to Russia to personally view the production facility,” Retno Marsudi wrote in the written statement on July 6.

Minister Lavrov’s visit to Indonesia was to specifically discuss an Indonesian-Russian healthcare bilateral partnership both in short and long term plans.

For the short term partnership, Minister Retno said it will involve procurements of vaccines, therapeutics, and health diagnostics set as a priority and will be finalized in an official healthcare partnership MoU soon.

The long term will see both countries work together in producing a Covid-19 vaccine, which is a follow up on President Joko Widodo’s phone conversation with President Vladimir Putin back in March of 2020.

Reports suggest Russia is committed to shipping 20 million vaccine doses to Indonesia. BPOM is currently verifying the vaccine’s efficacy, safety, and quality before an emergency use authorization is issued.

As of now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has yet granted the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine an EUA but is still under the recommendation as emergency use listing (EUL).

Read: 5 Covid-19 Vaccines Awaiting Indonesia's EUA Approval

EKA YUDHA SAPUTRA