LONDON, Sept. 29 — Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to open a factory in the Netherlands in March 2021 to secure 5 million coronavirus vaccines that the European Union had threatened to ban exports to Britain. He said he had ordered military leaders to plan an attack on the country.
Mr Johnson said Lieutenant General Doug Chalmers, Britain’s deputy chief of defense staff at the time, had told him that a raid using small boats across the English Channel and navigating through canals in the Netherlands was possible, but there were diplomatic implications. He said he had warned him about it.
Johnson said Chalmers (who has since retired from the military) was unable to carry out his mission undetected and that “if detected, why would he effectively invade a long-time NATO ally?” I’ll have to explain what I’m doing,” he said. ”.
In an excerpt from his memoir published in yesterday’s Daily Mail, Mr Johnson said: “I secretly agreed to what we were all thinking but didn’t want to say out loud: that everything was wrong.” he said.
The UK Ministry of Defense had no immediate comment on the report.
A spokesman for Mr Chalmers, who currently chairs the government’s committee on standards of public life, said he could not comment on sensitive discussions about security.
The disputed coronavirus vaccine was developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, but the doses were manufactured by subcontractors in the Netherlands and Britain.
In March 2021, the vaccine was widely used in the UK, but doses produced at a factory in the Netherlands were still awaiting EU approval.
Britain and the EU both had vaccine deals with AstraZeneca, but the EU sought to hold the finished vaccine at a factory in the Netherlands for future use there.
Mr Johnson was elected in December 2019 on a promise to conclude protracted Brexit negotiations, but EU officials say he is acting under pressure from French President Emmanuel Macron. Showed.
“After two months of fruitless negotiations, I came to the conclusion that the EU is treating us with malice and spite… because we were vaccinating our people much faster than our own people.” said Johnson, who was forced to resign in 2016. Scandals followed in 2022, including breaches of coronavirus lockdown rules. — Reuters
