THE CONTEXT: The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the whole world and changed the shape of global politics. Global responses are needed to confront global diseases. With regards to vaccine access, some countries have been much more fortunate than others. Therefore, the concept of vaccine diplomacy has become a major foreign-policy talking point. The Indian government was one of the first nations to engage in vaccine diplomacy under the “Vaccine Maitri” initiative.
WHAT IS VACCINE DIPLOMACY?
- The coronavirus vaccine — one of the world’s most in-demand commodities — has become a new currency for international diplomacy.
- Vaccine diplomacy is a measure to assist countries that may not otherwise have access to vaccines. In many ways, it mimics other diplomatic channels.
- Countries that produce vaccines can set up bilateral supply agreements with countries that need vaccines, which become a tool of soft power, or outright diplomatic allegiance. They are using the vaccine to find favor or improve strained relations.
- There is a multilateral agreement, Covax, brokered by the WHO and other international organizations, to provide vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries. Then there are bilateral agreements between individual countries.
- The strategy is similar to the energy supply agreements that were sought internationally, including by the US, to face energy crises in the early 2000s.
INDIA’S VACCINE DIPLOMACY
- A global challenge of this magnitude requires a global solution, based on international health cooperation between public and private-sector stakeholders.
- And India recognized early on that it could play a unique role in that process. India is already known as the pharmacy of the world, manufacturing some 20% of all generic medicines and accounting for as much as 62% of global vaccine production, so it was quick off the mark when the pandemic struck.
- India began its Covid outreach even before the vaccines were in place. India sent out 446 million HQC tablets and 1.54 billion paracetamol tables to 133 countries. Besides hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir, as well as diagnostic kits, ventilators, masks, gloves, and other medical supplies were also exported. Once India’s domestic vaccination campaign started, a wide range of countries began asking the country for vaccines.
- India’s vaccine sharing policy stands out given the alarming increase in ‘vaccine nationalism’. Its “Vaccine Maitri” campaign has shipped hundreds of thousands of Indian-made Covishield vaccines, to more than 90 countries.
- Indian vaccines have been flown to most of the country’s neighbors, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Myanmar, and Nepal, and also farther afield, to Seychelles, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Pacific Island, Caribbean, and African countries. Indian vaccines are arriving even in richer countries like the United Kingdom and Canada
- Many of the recipient countries have signed so-called vaccine pacts with India on a government-to-government basis to finalize the number of doses and determine whether they will be provided under grant assistance or under commercial terms.
- India has tied with other nations like the Quad partners, who at their first virtual summit pledged to supply at least one billion doses of vaccines to Indo-Pacific nations by the end of next year.
- Additionally, India and South Africa have also urged the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Council (TRIPS Council) to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights related to COVID-19 so that the vaccines and other new diagnostic technologies are accessible to poor countries. Although WTO members have failed to reach a consensus on the proposal, several developing countries have rallied behind this effort.
India’s vaccine diplomacy in numbers
Total countries: 95
Vaccine Grant: 107.15 lakhs
Commercial: 357.92lakhs
Covax : 198.628lakhs
Total: 663.698lakhs
A NEW ARENA FOR INDIA-CHINA STRATEGIC COMPETITION
- India’s vaccine diplomacy puts it in direct competition with China—whose vaccine distribution is clubbed with its broader geopolitical ambitions.
- In fact, it has even explicitly included vaccine distribution in its broader Health Silk Road initiative, which aims to bolster China’s international soft power. China is providing vaccines to many countries involved in its Belt Road Initiative, essentially protecting its investments.
- While China is trying to rehabilitate its image on the world state given that it’s been tagged as the source for Covid-19, India is using the country’s capacity in the pharma sector subtly to advertise an alternative to China’s economic and geopolitical dominance.
- While China has been secretive in releasing data about its vaccines, leading to controversies over their efficacy of them, India organized trips for foreign ambassadors to visit pharmaceutical factories.
- China wanted to project its vaccines as effective and more suited for use in and around its immediate neighbors, yet there is a preference for Indian manufactured medicines amongst most Southeast and South Asian countries as the Indian brands continue to evoke feelings of trust and quality
- Not only has India overshadowed China as a provider of cheap and accessible vaccines to the Global South; it has been quicker and more effective. For example, Indian vaccines beat China’s into Myanmar, Cambodia, and Afghanistan.
- China had a long history of seeking political, commercial, or diplomatic gains for its various projects. India does not have a history of seeking special benefits from its health assistance; India has long been seen as a helpful partner in ensuring affordable drugs and vaccines to lower-income countries.
- Vaccine manufacture and distribution is one area where India has some comparative advantage over China, which usually overshadows India in military and economic might. Quad’s vaccine initiative comes as a direct response to China’s efforts to compete through vaccine diplomacy.
BENEFITS
Boost to soft power: India’s vaccine diplomacy is, of course, not purely altruistic. While there are commercial benefits, vaccine diplomacy is an extension of continued investment in promoting India’s soft power abroad. At a time when most rich countries are criticized for hoarding vaccine doses and “vaccine nationalism” is common, the vaccine Maitri program has raised India’s standing and generated great international goodwill.
Enhanced global standing: Delhi’s supplies make for a key diplomatic initiative in a year when India is at the UN Security Council and ahead of the G-20 it will host in 2023. India has supplied vaccines to at least 50% of the Least Developed (LDC) countries and one-third of the Small Island Developing (SID) countries. These are the two major small-country groupings that have an influential voice at the United Nations. The effort may one day help India secure recognition as a global power – with a permanent UN Security Council seat.
A new dimension to “Neighborhood First”: India is keen on mending its ties with Bangladesh. The COVID-19 vaccine can ease the tensions. Similarly, vaccine diplomacy provides an opportunity for India to resolve outstanding issues with Nepal. In Indian Ocean countries like the Maldives and Mauritius, India’s vaccine diplomacy can help foster stronger ties in the region, and offset China’s growing influence attributable to its financial investments and social development projects.
Countering China: In South Asia, where China’s presence has grown in recent years, India’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ could help to even out the playing field. India has a longer track record of supplying medicines and vaccines to the rest of the world, especially to low- and middle-income countries. The key elements of India’s vaccine diplomacy have merged into the Quad vaccine initiative under which vaccines will go to countries in the Indo-Pacific region — the battleground of contestation between the Chinese and the Quad’s sphere of influence.
Human-Centric Globalization: Indian-made vaccines do not require storage and transport at very low temperatures. This makes them much more manageable for lower-income countries which lack significant cold chain infrastructure. For small countries, it is not just the ability to buy, but also the resources to access markets. The big debates around globalization are ‘equity’ and ‘fairness'”.Most of the developing countries wouldn’t have gotten their vaccines so early if India had not supplied them. This reinforces human-centric international cooperation and globalization.
Global public good: India’s initiatives to make vaccines widely available to developing countries, together with growing evidence of the benefits from making COVID-19 vaccines accessible, suggests that during a pandemic, medical products must be treated as global public goods. Several studies caution that low vaccine availability, especially for smaller countries, will prolong recovery and trigger significant increases in global inequalities. The equitable distribution of vaccines is in the economic interest of every country.
Economic Benefits: India’s manufacturing sector will attract more foreign direct investment. Greater cooperation over supply chains will help strengthen Indian pharma in the long term aim to ease dependence on imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients from China.
CONCERNS AND CHALLENGES
Citizens first: India has exported three times as many doses as it has administered to its own people. Citizens are increasingly demanding that the domestic population be served first to quell infection rates locally, prior to sending shipments abroad. Furthermore, even with vaccination efforts underway globally, new strains of coronavirus are emerging quickly, emphasizing that inoculation efforts must continue to move forward as quickly as possible.
Second wave: There has been questioning of India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative in some quarters as the crisis at home has unfolded in the past few weeks. India has vast populations of its own to inoculate. And that India, with its sharp spike in cases in this wave, poses a global health threat. It is in the interests of the world to ensure that Indians are vaccinated. Vaccine Maitri gave signals that India needs no help.
Vaccines nationalism: Vaccines are manufactured through long and complex global supply chains and bottlenecks have arisen from “Vaccine nationalism”. Many of the countries are restricting access to materials needed to build more supplies. For example, America invoked the Defense Production Act to safeguard supplies for its own manufacturers.
Failure to add capacity: Poor judgment on India’s domestic requirement and the failure to back up vaccine diplomacy ambitions with adequate manufacturing capacity has meant that both domestic and international vaccination efforts have been ruined leaving several neighboring nations high and dry. As India stopped exports of vaccines last month because of a fresh surge of the pandemic, Bangladesh is scrambling to get sufficient quantities of vaccines. Bangladesh will be looking towards China and Russia if India is not able to honour its commitment.
Other concerns: There are mounting concerns 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, which will intensify the challenge India confronts in fulfilling its obligations to developing countries while also meeting domestic demand.
ANALYSIS
With its advanced cutting-edge healthcare in the private sector and reputation as a health destination, it was natural that governments in the region would look to vaccines manufactured in India. By exporting doses of the COVID-19 vaccine under the Vaccine Maitri initiative, India is fulfilling its role as a responsible nation. The smaller countries that have received Indian vaccine doses are indeed very grateful for our help. By sending vaccines to our neighbors and by supplying them to countries in the Indian Ocean Littoral countries, India has demonstrated both goodwill and capacity. India is using its soft power to assist developing countries, a role that it has increasingly been playing as a development partner.
Vaccine diplomacy has earned India a huge name. It has—or will— change the dynamics in the days ahead like few things have. The world is seeing India differently. Its generosity and infrastructure have come into the public eye. Like information technology, which put India on the world map, pharmaceuticals will do the same. It is good both for Brand India and Makes in India. The world’s top vaccine companies, like Russia’s Sputnik and Johnson & Johnson, will certainly want facilities in India.
There has been questioning of India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative in some quarters as the crisis at home has unfolded in the past few weeks. Reasonable questions can be asked about the need for India to supply vaccines and other products to the world at large when there was a crisis at home.
In some ways, the answer to this can be relatively simple: That this is rooted in India’s civilizational ethos. While it might be commonplace for some nations to suggest that it is in the interest of the wider world to focus exclusively on their citizens, it’s not a narrative that India can uphold at any level. At a time when the Indian situation looked stable, it was morally right for India to support other parts of the world that were in greater pain.
India’s ‘Vaccinemaitri’ approach was trying to ensure no one gets left behind. The virus knows no borders and equitable access to vaccines is critically important. The country’s ability to make vaccines is a result of international cooperation which is not a one-way transaction. It is important to recognize that global support for India is also a reciprocal appreciation of New Delhi’s efforts over the last few months.
Delhi’s decision to start sending vaccines to its neighbors in South Asia and other countries who have asked for it is the right step forward for India in its relations with its neighbors. It holds immense potential for a new kind of diplomacy in the region, one based on the common good and common interests of the South Asian people.
In diplomacy today, doing good is being smart, ‘vaccine Maitri’ reflects the larger outlook of ‘VaisudhaivaKutumbakam’ (the world is one family), health security is now integral to national security. Health security is emerging as a priority area for cooperation and India can play an important role in it.
WAY FORWARD
- Vaccine multiculturalism should be promoted through an international collaborative effort under the aegis of the unsubscribed sustainable development goals.
- India is one of the biggest producers of vaccines, but we need to ramp up production even more. Global vaccines that have Indian collaborations need to be given the license without the mandatory bridging trials.
- The government must ensure that its domestic vaccine requirements are being adequately met.
CONCLUSION: Vaccine diplomacy was a good move to boost India’s international image and spread goodwill by coming to the aid of humanity. India had come in for fulsome praise across the globe for its desire to help the world. The WHO had on several occasions commended India for its desire to act as a responsible global power. India’s vaccine diplomacy has been a boon to the country’s aspirations to be recognized 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’s 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.
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