Strategic Vaccine Diplomacy The Way Forward

Context: While recently India has moved closer to the developed nations like the US and the EU, the strategic convergence is challenged by differences in vaccine diplomacy.

India’s strategic convergence with the developed nations: 

• The India-EU leaders’ meeting in May, followed by the G7 meeting in June, sought India’s role through a preferred strategic convergence.
• This envisages collaboration in managing the pandemic, its economic fallout, creating resilient value chains, and enhancing vaccine production and accessibility.

Challenges in the enhanced partnership:

• Different standards: Western partners like to set higher standards for India as for instance, on climate change, WTO issues, and investment rules. 
• India would, for its own interests, like to be on the side of developing countries.
• Vaccine production, distribution and wider availability: Challenged by vaccine nationalism in the wake of the second wave.
• The same EU leaders who in May 2020 spoke about the vaccine as a ‘global public property’ are now resisting the TRIPS waiver.
• As of May 2021, India contributed 107 million doses in bilateral grants, 357 million commercially and 198 million under COVAX.
• EU nations are demanding that India should invoke compulsory licensing instead of seeking waivers.
• Vaccine passports: While EU’s Green Pass is a noble thought for its own citizens, extending that as a vaccine passport to non-European countries is a challenge.
• India opposed this concept as discriminatory. The Green Pass covers four European Medical Agency (EMA)- approved vaccines, not all the six approved by the WHO.

Way Forward: A move toward strategic vaccine diplomacy

• Persist with the WTO format: India could choose its battlefields more selectively and can form partnerships over bilateral agreements escaping the stringent EU’s proposals.
• Nine Schengen countries decided to accept the Covishield CoWin certificates.
• Consensus-building outside the framework of contentious institutions: It is a better choice that will contribute to making vaccines a truly ‘global public property.