Chinese Tentacle Wining the Vaccine Diplomacy

 

 With vaccine diplomacy, India hoped to improve relationships on its peninsula.

In South Asia, India and Nepal are the hotspots of the second wave of this Pandemic. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are also running toward the worst point. Bhutan is looking for success in controlling a single death so far. India has more than three and a half million deaths recorded, Pakistan crossed 21 thousand, Bangladesh crossed 12.5 thousand and Nepal crossed 8 thousand so far. India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are facing massive pressure for the vaccine this time. Recently, Pakistan started manufacturing the vaccine "PakVac" with the assistance of China’s CanSinoBio.

India is the largest country among its neighbouring countries in South Asia. The relationship between Delhi and its neighbour does not always follow a straight line, but rather has ups and downs. It had a strong dominance over them, but geopolitical norms have slowly shifted against Indian interests in the last few decades as a result of China's rise in this region.

Just after the first wave of COVID19, India was on war footing involved in producing the vaccine. As one of the largest drug-producing countries in the world, many hopeful eyes were centred on it. Indian leaders were assuring many countries about the vaccine from some international forum. Obviously, it was also an opportunity for India to close the gap in its bilateral relations with its neighbour. China has been spearing its legs of interest around the Indian peninsula is a severe headache for India. The hope of vaccine diplomacy for the remedy of weakening diplomatic relations was not meaningless for India.

China was the first country affected by the Covid19 pandemic last year. It is surrounded by various questions about the COVID virus's origin. The American block is accusing Beijing of mismanagement of the virus and not giving the right information at the right time. Ultimately, they saying Beijing is only responsible for the worldwide bad effects of this pandemic. However, China was relatively successful in controlling the Pandemic. Though the world is still not coming out of the grip of the pandemic, at the same time, China is not only reviving its economy but forwarding its soft-looking vaccine diplomacy in the world.

  According to Suisheng Zhao of the East Asia Forum, China provided the vaccine for emergency use in 80 countries in April, with 53 countries receiving it free of charge and 27 paying the cost. Beijing is expressing concern about resolving the pandemic problem. 

Chinese President Xi proposed a Global Health Summit held by the G20 and the European Commission to support developing countries with COVID related logistics and vaccines. He also committed to providing 3 billion dollars for this. Anantha Krishnan writes in Hindu that China is seeking to give support to South Asian countries. It is a very uneasy move by China for India, particularly for its neighbour diplomacy, that tentacles of Chinese interest may be detrimental to the future of the region. However, India is trapped in obligations of worsening domestic effects of the pandemic.  

 

Nepal, an adjoining country of India and China, is seeking more vaccines for the severe condition of COVID19. Both are providing insufficient logistical or vaccine assistance to Nepal. President Bidya Devi Bhandari and the government called the international community to help. India is not able to send booked order of vaccine to Nepal due to its court’s preventive order. There is widespread concern in Nepal about a lack of vaccine centre support from China. According to a Kathmandu-based source, Nepal desires a balance of support from its two giant neighbours, China and India, due to geopolitics, but India is unable to work as a commitment to solving the problem.

In the second week of the month, the UN resident coordinator for Nepal Sara Beysolow Nyanti said, we rank Nepal 9th among the top 10 countries in terms of daily increase in COVID19 cases. Of all those countries, Nepal has the smallest population but it has the highest infection rate.

Recently, Prime Minister KP Oli said to the BBC that Nepal and India are at the same risk of a pandemic due to the open border. In this situation, Nepal hopes for more vaccines. India is the most affected country by the second wave of COVID19. It is also facing a shortage of vaccines. The Serum Institute is manufacturing Covishield, developed by Astra Zeneca with Oxford University and Bharat Biotech also manufacturing Covaxin this time.

Overall, vaccine diplomacy will have an impact on the future and China is conducting a stormy move to catch the opportunity.