{"id":63122,"date":"2021-03-12T13:05:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T02:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=63122"},"modified":"2021-03-12T13:03:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T02:03:07","slug":"indias-smart-vaccine-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/indias-smart-vaccine-diplomacy\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s smart vaccine diplomacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As countries scramble to secure Covid-19 vaccines, ugly expressions like \u2018vaccine race\u2019 and \u2018vaccine nationalism\u2019 have entered the global lexicon. But, at a time when global cooperation in sharing vaccines is minimal, and the World Health Organization\u2019s vaccine-distribution plans are yet to get off the ground, India has taken a different tack, quietly pursuing \u2018vaccine diplomacy\u2019. Its \u2018Vaccine Maitri\u2019 (Vaccine Friendship) campaign has shipped hundreds of thousands of Indian-made Covishield vaccines, manufactured under licence from Oxford University and AstraZeneca, to some 60 countries.<\/p>\n

India is a global pharmaceutical powerhouse, manufacturing some 20% of all generic medicines<\/a> and accounting for as much as 62% of global vaccine production, so it was quick off the mark when the pandemic struck. Before Covid-19 vaccines were developed, India supplied some 100 countries with hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol, and sent pharmaceuticals, test kits and other equipment to around 90 countries. Later, even before the Oxford\/AstraZeneca vaccine was approved, Adar Poonawalla, the 40-year-old head of the privately owned Serum Institute of India, audaciously decided to manufacture it\u2014a billion-dollar gamble. When approvals came, the institute was able to churn out millions of doses, making them available to the government for both domestic use and export.<\/p>\n

Indian vaccines have been flown to most of the country\u2019s neighbours, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Myanmar and Nepal, and also further afield, to the Seychelles, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Pacific Island, Caribbean and African countries. Vaccines have helped mend strained relations<\/a> with Bangladesh and cement friendly ties with the Maldives.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, China and Russia have been promoting their own vaccines, and Western drug companies are raking in a publicity bonanza (along with a share-price windfall). But in developing vaccines for its own use, the global north overlooked the prohibitive cost of the Pfizer\/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for poorer countries. Indian-made vaccines, on the other hand, are reportedly safe and cost-effective, and\u2014unlike some others\u2014don\u2019t require storage and transport at very low temperatures.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s vaccine diplomacy is, of course, not purely altruistic. When the country\u2019s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundations of India\u2019s science and technology infrastructure, his intentions were expressed in noble, humanist and universalist terms. But his successors have long recognised how India can leverage its scientific and medical skills to enhance its geopolitical standing. At a time when most richer countries are criticised for hoarding vaccine doses, India stands out for having sent 33 million to poorer countries, with millions more in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also an unspoken subtext: rivalry with China, with which tensions have intensified following clashes along the Himalayan frontier. Not only has India overshadowed China as a provider of cheap and accessible vaccines to the global south, but it has been quicker and more effective. For example, China has announced 300,000 doses for Myanmar but is yet to deliver any, while India quickly supplied 1.7 million. Similarly, Indian vaccines beat China\u2019s into Cambodia and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

When a credibility crisis consumed China\u2019s vaccines in pandemic-ravaged Brazil, with polls showing 50% of Brazilians<\/a> surveyed unwilling to take the Sinovac vaccine, President Jair Bolsonaro turned to India, which came through promptly. Tweeting<\/a> his thanks, Bolsonaro illustrated his gratitude with an image from India\u2019s Ramayana epic, depicting Lord Hanuman carrying an entire mountain to deliver the life-saving herb Sanjeevani booti<\/em> to Lanka.<\/p>\n

Indian vaccines are arriving even in richer countries. The United Kingdom has ordered 10 million doses from the Serum Institute. Canada, whose prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has riled his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, more than once, telephoned Modi to ask for two million vaccines; the first half a million were delivered within days. Trudeau effusively declared<\/a> that the world\u2019s victory over Covid-19 would be \u2018because of India\u2019s tremendous pharmaceutical capacity, and Prime Minister Modi\u2019s leadership in sharing this capacity with the world\u2019.<\/p>\n

India is using the country\u2019s capacity in this sector subtly to advertise an alternative to China\u2019s economic and geopolitical dominance. While China has been secretive in releasing data about its vaccines, leading to controversies over their efficacy, India has organised trips for foreign ambassadors to visit pharmaceutical factories in Pune and Hyderabad.<\/p>\n

The contrast with the behaviour of wealthier countries is no less striking. According to Duke University\u2019s Global Health Institute, developed countries with 16% of the world\u2019s population\u2014including Canada, the US and the UK, each of which has guaranteed enough supplies to vaccinate its population several times over\u2014have secured 60% of global vaccine supplies<\/a> for themselves.<\/p>\n

The world is paying attention to India as it shares its available vaccine supplies<\/a>, instead of choosing the nationalist course of blocking exports. India has also offered 1.1 billion vaccine doses to the WHO\u2019s COVAX program for distribution to poorer countries. As Modi has tweeted<\/a>, \u2018We are all together in the fight against this pandemic. India is committed to sharing resources, experiences and knowledge for global good.\u2019<\/p>\n

If there is a concern, it\u2019s that India has exported three times as many doses as it has administered to its own people. The country is lagging behind its own target of immunising 300 million people by August, after vaccinating some three million healthcare workers in a campaign that began on 16 January. And mounting concern about rising case numbers, the emergence of Covid-19 variants that may not respond to existing vaccines, and an economy that has not yet fully recovered, will intensify the challenge India confronts in fulfilling its obligations to developing countries while also meeting domestic demand.<\/p>\n

Meeting that challenge is a vital national interest. India\u2019s vaccine diplomacy has been a boon to the country\u2019s aspirations to be recognised as a global power. In combating the pandemic, it has gone well beyond the routine provision of health care or the supply of generics. To be sure, it is uncertain whether promoting soft power through healthcare exports significantly boosts a country\u2019s position in the global order. But if and when the permanent seats at the United Nations Security Council are ever rearranged, grateful governments will know who has done the most to save a world reeling from the onslaught of a deadly pathogen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As countries scramble to secure Covid-19 vaccines, ugly expressions like \u2018vaccine race\u2019 and \u2018vaccine nationalism\u2019 have entered the global lexicon. But, at a time when global cooperation in sharing vaccines is minimal, and the World …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1170,"featured_media":63124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[294,69,526,2804],"class_list":["post-63122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-diplomacy","tag-india","tag-soft-power","tag-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndia\u2019s smart vaccine diplomacy | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/indias-smart-vaccine-diplomacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India\u2019s smart vaccine diplomacy | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As countries scramble to secure Covid-19 vaccines, ugly expressions like \u2018vaccine race\u2019 and \u2018vaccine nationalism\u2019 have entered the global lexicon. 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