The covid Vaccine: India’s Chance to outshine China
With global vaccination initiatives just around the corner, India has the opportunity to use its large manufacturing capacities to consolidate her diplomatic ties.
Rich countries around the world are in a race to secure the first doses of Covid-19 vaccines, prioritising domestic consumption over equitable distribution. There is a strong nationalistic undercurrent, which is once again dividing the haves and have nots of the world.
For example, in pre-purchase agreements, the United States, Japan, the UK, and Germany have spent tens of billions on deals with vaccine front runners like Johnson & Johnson, Oxford AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
India, on the other hand, is leveraging its status as the world’s vaccine factory to consolidate her diplomatic ties with South and South East Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Despite a population of approximately 1.3, of which 700 million need to be inoculated to achieve herd immunity, India has promised to live up to its ‘Neighbourhood First’ and ‘Act-East policy’, by pursuing agreements with Nepal and Bangladesh for aid in the delivery of vaccines on a priority basis.
With the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, India is levelling the playing field with China, who is aggressively and relentlessly deploying its vaccine diplomacy tactics to whitewash its image as the perpetrator of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the anti-China sentiment remains strong. Despite a minimal demand at home, and a significant advantage with priority supply, countries like the Philippines and Thailand are choosing AstraZeneca and, Malaysia is agreeing with US-based Pfizer to obtain 12.8 million doses, snubbing any attempts by China’s at mending relations. This is due to many factors including incomplete data in the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, its previous attempts with ‘Mask Diplomacy’ and most importantly, the general sentiment of wariness regarding China’s predatory actions.
While India is working on a range of tactics including guaranteed supply and free vaccines under its grants and aid programme, China is ‘loaning’ its vaccines, a move invoicing strong negative reactions, especially from countries in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Its thinly veiled efforts at gaining more geopolitical clout in an attempt to ward off investigations into the source of coronavirus are, in fact, are inviting further anguish and resentment from Southeast Asian countries. Last week, newspapers in Hong Kong and Singapore reported that as a quid pro quo for the vaccine, members of ASEAN have been asked to support China at the World Health Organisation (WHO) as it has been facing the heat for hiding information on the highly contagious coronavirus.
From military threats and ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ to its vaccine diplomacy, China is clearly leaving no stone unturned to conceal the dubious role it played in the spread of the pandemic that has cost millions of lives and pushed the world economy into a crisis.
While this clearly shows China’s insecurity and worry, it may just be the opportunity that India needs to show the strength of its soft power, which can determine its global position in a post-Covid world. Now, it is up to India to make the best of China’s mess.