Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos França says his country aims to give or sell vaccines to other countries, particularly in South America, to help them counter the COVID-19 pandemic, Rádio Nacional reports.

The Brazilian state-run broadcaster says Mr França was speaking at the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation, a gathering last week of representatives of 30 countries or international institutions, which was arranged by China.

China is an important partner of Brazil in its effort to counter the pandemic, Rádio Nacional quoted Mr França as saying.

Separately, the Brazilian Embassy in Beijing issued a written statement quoting Mr França as saying over 145 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in his country, and that 75 percent of them were made in Brazil.

Last month the Reuters news agency reported that Instituto Butantan, a biomedical research centre in São Paulo, Brazil, had been making doses of CoronaVac, the COVID-19 vaccine devised by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. of China, and the vaccine most used in Brazil.