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China, Russia and India have been accused of participating in “vaccine diplomacy” as they select countries to apply their COVID-19 vaccines to reinforce their influence.
The Sky News analysis found that 47 countries, in addition to the African Union, which represents 55 nations, have made or have been offered vaccine deals with India, China and Russia.
In 21 countries, their only vaccine supplies as of February 19 came from Russia, China and India.
In 16 other countries, half or more of the agreed doses come from those three countries, data from scientific analysis company Airfinity shows.
Most of those vaccines are from China and Russia, but some from Africa and Asia are from India.
However, the vast majority of COVID-19 the vaccines are not from Russia, China and India, with only one in 10 doses of them. Its main objective is to impose its influence, experts have said.
Agathe Demarais, director of global forecasting at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Sky News: “What Russia and China are trying to do is strengthen their global position.
“They have been doing this for decades, but both leaders are taking this opportunity to improve their position, it is a brick in the whole basic plan.”
Ms Demarais, who is also a former French diplomat in Russia and the Middle East, added that it is a long-term strategy, so whether they are rich or poor is not necessarily the most important question, it is whether they can impose their influence.
“Strengthening the global presence in the long term will give them influence over emerging countries, when you receive vaccines from Russia and China, they will have small requests to which you cannot say no,” he added.
“Russia and China present themselves as saviors, but there is a risk: they have had production problems, they are struggling to vaccinate their own populations, so there is great concern that they will promise too much and deliver less.”
China and Russia are not only providing vaccines to countries, but they are also providing factories to manufacture them and workers as part of their long-term strategy in some nations.
India, which only produces vaccines in India, is targeting neighboring countries and trying to beat China, said development expert Dr. Subir Sahir of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
He believes that there is another strand of vaccine diplomacy for India in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to be seen on the world stage as a man of “great generosity.”
However, with deployment in India progressing slowly and some states are refusing to administer the Indian-made Covivax vaccine due to concerns about efficacy, there is question as to how far India’s vaccine diplomacy can go.
COVAX, the initiative aimed at ensuring that all countries get the vaccine fairly, does not yet have any agreements with Russia, China or India, but China has said that its three developers have requested to supply their vaccines to the program and is waiting to see if they are approved.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer, will be on Sky News from 9 a.m. Wednesday morning to answer your questions about COVID.
Send the question you want to answer by email or a video clip to [email protected] and we will ask you.
