Guerrilla war instead of global solidarity: In the vaccination dispute, all states see themselves as being in the right.
EU Council President Michel defends the EU vaccination policy.
Beijing will soon allow entry - but only after a Chinese vaccination.
Munich - The global vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is divided into different camps.
The West and allies such as India inoculate and produce western vaccines such as those from BionTech or Moderna.
Meanwhile, China and Russia rely on their own vaccines - or sell and donate them abroad.
The USA and Europe accuse China and Russia of aggressive vaccination diplomacy - but so far have hardly exported, especially not to the poorer global south.
A point that also causes concern among four out of six parliamentary groups.
Conversely, the state-run Chinese newspaper
Global Times
accuses
the West of vaccination nationalism: the US hoarded doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was not even approved there, instead of leaving the vaccine to others, the newspaper says.
In fact, among other things, the EU and AstraZeneca argued about delivery failures - before this vaccine was now suspended in order to clarify possible connections with the formation of thromboses after vaccination.
The US actually stores tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Vaccination donations from China: People's Republic distributes vaccines - advantages possible with future entry
China, however, sells and donates its vaccines all over the world.
In Europe, Belarus and Montenegro have already received vaccination donations from Beijing.
Serbia, Pakistan, Brazil, Chile, the EU country Hungary and others bought the Chinese vaccines.
The recipient countries can now hope for advantages when entering China.
Beijing's embassies in the US, India, Pakistan and other countries announced on Monday that they would be processing visa requests from travelers “vaccinated with Chinese corona vaccines”.
The benefits apply exclusively to Chinese vaccines.
At the same time, the
Global Times
criticized the
fact
that EU plans for a European vaccination passport provide for freedom of movement in Europe only for those vaccinated with EU-approved vaccines such as Biontech, AstraZeneca or Moderna.
The newspaper does not seem to notice that Beijing itself is pursuing the same policy of preferring its own vaccine.
In China, on the other hand, only the four Chinese vaccines are inoculated.
Beijing has not yet approved a single foreign vaccine.
At least at the beginning of March a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai acquired the license to produce and market the Biontech Pfizer vaccine in China.
The EU wants to present the concept of its vaccination pass this week.
So far, neither the Chinese nor the Russian vaccine has been approved in Europe or the USA.
However, there are now the first advocates to examine a permit for the EU.
Corona vaccination campaign: divided markets and mutual recriminations
Instead of being characterized by global cooperation, criticism and justification of the global vaccination campaign is currently dominating on all sides.
In a fairly direct manifesto, EU Council President Charles Michel rejected criticism of the EU vaccination policy: Russia and China organized "limited but widely publicized vaccination campaigns", criticized Michel.
The EU will never use vaccines for propaganda purposes.
"I am shocked to hear that Europe is being accused of not acting in solidarity," wrote Michel.
At the same time, he was sad that Europe had been criticized from within for "wanting to share cans with others before it had vaccinated all of its citizens."
Michel defended the strategy of buying vaccines for all member states together.
Michel rejected the accusation of vaccination nationalism.
Unlike the USA or Great Britain, the EU has never completely suspended its vaccine exports.
A control mechanism was only introduced to prevent companies that “have not delivered ordered and pre-financed cans to us from delivering them to other industrialized countries instead.” Last week, Italy used this control mechanism to deliver 250,000 cans to Australia to stop.
However, some countries that ordered from China or Russia did so simply because they had no other choice.
Serbia, for example, complained that vaccines from the EU that had been promised did not arrive there.
Belgrade is now mainly infecting Sinopharm and Sputnik V. The EU country Hungary also ordered directly from Beijing - bypassing Brussels.
EU and USA: Debate about their own vaccination diplomacy
The EU is part of the international Covax initiative that has pledged two billion doses of vaccine to developing countries and is gradually starting to deliver the vaccine, initially in African countries such as Benin.
+
Nightly arrival of the first vaccine doses from the international vaccine initiative Covax in Benin.
© Seraphin Zounyekpe / picture alliance / dpa / Xinhua
EU Council President Michel warned that the slow pace of vaccination should not lead to one becoming “blind to the greater perspective”.
The EU ordered two billion doses - more than double what would be necessary to vaccinate its own citizens.
Large parts of it should be distributed to partner countries, said Michel.
But so far this vaccine is not even there.
French President Emmanuel Macron had already called on the Munich Siko to donate vaccination doses to African countries instead of money.
If you just give the affected countries money, they would order the vaccines from China or Russia, Macron said.
German politicians are also in favor of better vaccination diplomacy.
And in the United States, President Joe Biden's administration is coming under pressure.
According to a report in the
New York Times
, the
White House and the health authorities are wrestling over
whether the US should give the stored AstraZeneca vaccine doses abroad or not.
The Biden administration should not underestimate the risk of losing soft power, the
Washington Post
recently
quoted
director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, J. Stephen Morrison: "The Chinese and Russians are advancing their vaccination diplomacy make friends, influence people and expand their sphere of influence. "
Brazil, for example, ordered and received millions of doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, which had also been tested in Brazil.
A short time later, Brazil decided to allow the Chinese telecommunications supplier Huawei to participate in the auctions for licenses to set up the 5G networks.
Coincidence?
+
China vaccine from Sinovac in Brazil: Ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva receives the vaccine on a vaccination drive thru.
© Andre Penner / picture alliance / dpa / AP
But the US is starting to rethink.
Last week, the United States rejected vaccine donations to Mexico.
As part of a vaccination alliance in Asia, however, the USA now want to massively accelerate the corona vaccination programs in the region with Japan, Australia and India.
The goal is an "ambitious partnership that boosts vaccine production for global benefit and vaccines for the benefit of the entire Indo-Pacific region," said Biden on Friday at a virtual summit of the four so-called quad states.
According to information from US government circles, the four states want to jointly produce up to one billion vaccine doses by the end of 2022, primarily to counteract the vaccine shortage in Southeast Asia.
The plan provides for the Indian pharmaceutical industry in particular to produce the vaccine from the US company Johnson & Johnson for Asia.
Japan should help with the financing, and Australia organize the transport.
Although not explicitly mentioned by any of the summit participants, the initiative is also likely to be a response to China's role in global vaccine distribution.
(ck / with AFP)
