NEW DELHI – India, the unparalleled manufacturing force for vaccines, is giving away millions of doses to friendly and estranged neighbors. It is trying to counter China, which has made the firing of shots a central plan of its foreign relations. And the United Arab Emirates, which uses its oil wealth, buys samples on behalf of its allies.
The coronavirus vaccine – one of the world’s most popular products – has become a new currency for international diplomacy.
Countries with the means or expertise use the shots to promote or thaw advancing icy relationships. India sent them to Nepal, a country that was increasingly falling under China’s influence. Sri Lanka, amid a diplomatic tug of war between New Delhi and Beijing, is getting doses of both.
The strategy involves risks. India and China, which both make vaccines for the rest of the world, have a large population of their own that they have to vaccinate. Although there are few signs of grumbling in both countries, this may change as the public looks at how doses are sold or donated abroad.
‘Indians are dying. Indians are still getting the disease, ”said Manoj Joshi, a senior fellow of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. ‘I could understand if our needs were met, and then you gave the goods away. But I think there is a false moral superiority that you are trying to convey where you say that we give away our goods even before we use them ourselves. ‘
The donating countries deliver their offerings at a time when the United States and other rich countries are running out of world supplies. Poorer countries are frantically trying to get their own, a difference the World Health Organization recently warned has put the world ‘on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure’.
While their health systems have been tested like never before, many countries are eager to take what they are offered – and donors can reap political rewards.
“Instead of securing a country by sending troops, you can secure the country by saving lives, by saving their economy, by helping with their vaccination,” said Dania Thafer, CEO of Gulf International Forum, a think tank in Washington, said. .
China was one of the first countries to launch a diplomatic vaccine push, promising to help developing countries last year, even before the country produced a vaccine that proved effective. Just this week, he said it would donate 300,000 vaccine doses to Egypt.
But some of China’s vaccination diplomacy efforts have stumbled upon supplies that arrived late, a lack of disclosure about the effectiveness of the vaccines and other problems. Chinese government officials unexpectedly cited strong needs at home amid isolated outbreaks, a move that could stem any domestic setback.
Even as Chinese vaccines spread, India saw an opportunity to strengthen its own image.
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine factory, produces approximately 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine daily. That rate enabled India to start handing out free doses to neighbors. The big plans have arrived in Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles and Afghanistan.
‘East acting. Act quickly, ”S. Jaishankar, Indian Foreign Minister, announced that 1.5 million doses had arrived in Myanmar. on Twitter.
The Indian government has tried to obtain advertising points for doses sent to places like Brazil and Morocco, even though those countries bought them. The Serum Institute also pledged 200 million doses to a global WHO pool called Covax that would go to poorer countries, while China recently pledged 10 million.
For the time being, the Indian government has room to donate abroad, even after months when business has skyrocketed and the economy has been hampered, and even just a small percentage of the 1.3 billion people have been vaccinated. Part of the reason for a lack of setbacks: the Serum Institute is producing faster than Indias’ vaccination program can currently handle, leaving extras for donations and exports behind.
And some Indians are in no hurry to be vaccinated due to skepticism about a native vaccine called Covaxin. The Indian government has approved its emergency use without disclosing much information about it, which has led to people doubting its effectiveness. While the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab experiences less skepticism, those who are vaccinated cannot choose which vaccine they will receive.
For India, its soft-power vaccine drive has given it a boost to China, after years of watching the Chinese make political gains in its own backyard – in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal and elsewhere. Beijing has offered deep pockets and quick answers when it comes to large investments that India, with a low bureaucracy and a sluggish economy, is struggling to fit.
“The neighborhood in India has become more and more competitive,” said Constantino Xavier, who studies India’s relations with its neighbors at the Center for Social and Economic Progress, a think tank in New Delhi. “The vaccine boost strengthens India’s credibility as a trusted crisis responder and solution provider for these neighboring countries.”
One of India’s largest donations was to Nepal, where relations between India were at an all-time low. The small country is built between India and China and is strategically important to both.
The government of KP Sharma Oli, the Prime Minister, has started snooping with China over the past five years, after border disputes and what some in Nepal criticize as a master-and-servant relationship with India. Mr. Oli held workshops on ‘Xi Jinping Thought’, based on the strategies of China’s leading leader, and signed contracts for various projects as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s infrastructure and development pressure.
But the prime minister lost his grip on power last year. While both Chinese and Indian delegations arrived in Kathmandu to manage Nepal’s political jockeying, the Nepalese leader apparently lowered the temperature with India.
After Oli sent his foreign minister to New Delhi for talks, India donated one million doses. China’s Sinopharm also applied for the vaccination of Nepal, but drug authorities there did not give it a chance.
“The vaccine originated as an opportunity to normalize ties between Nepal and India,” said Tanka Karki, a former Nepalese envoy to China.
Yet the strategy of using vaccines to win hearts and minds is not always successful.
The United Arab Emirates, which vaccinates faster than any country other than Israel, has begun donating Synopharm vaccines manufactured by China to countries with strategic or commercial interests, including 50,000 doses each to the Seychelles, the island nation. the country. Indian Ocean and Egypt, one of its Arab allies.
But in Egypt, some doctors did not use it because they said they did not trust the data released by the UAE and the Chinese manufacturer of the vaccine on trials. The Malaysian government, one of the Emirates’ largest trading partners, has rejected an offer of 500,000 doses, saying regulators must independently approve the Synopharm vaccine. Following approval of the regulation, Malaysia purchased vaccinations from Pfizer from the United States, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, and one made by another Chinese company, Sinovac.
Even accepted good will can be short-lived. Witness Sri Lanka, where India and China are in a battle for influence.
Since Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office as president in 2019, New Delhi has struggled to get its government committed to an agreement signed by its predecessor to complete a terminal project in Colombo port to be developed in part by India. . While major Chinese projects continued, Mr. Rajapaksa opened the Indian deal for a review.
In the hope of emphasizing the importance of the project, Mr. Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister, visited last month. In the same month, 500,000 doses of vaccine arrived from India. Mr. Rajapaksa was at the airport to receive them. Sri Lanka has also placed an order for 18 million doses of the Serum Institute, the Ministry of Health in Colombo confirmed.
The Indian media regarded both as a diplomatic victory, and it appears that Sri Lanka will be mainly dependent on India for vaccines. But on January 27, Mr. Rajapaksa receives another gift from China: a promise to donate 300,000 doses.
The duel donations are just part of a much larger diplomatic dance. Another week later, Rajapaksa’s cabinet decided that Sri Lanka would develop the Colombo terminal on its own, which would drive India out of the project.
Mujib Mashal reports from New Delhi and Vivian Yee from Cairo. Bhadra Sharma, Elsie Chen, Aanya Piyari, Salman Masood and Zia ur-Rehman contribution made.