The World Health Organisation through its representative at the local office in China gave its support and understanding to start administering experimental coronavirus vaccines while clinical trials are still underway. Although the WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in Geneva this month that, national regulatory authorities could approve the use of medical products within their jurisdictions in the current emergency, but described that as a “temporary solution”. However, this has happened even though Beijing has not released full details of its emergency use programme and as per Economic Times, the WHO representative in China did not immediately entertain requests for comments, solidifying the point that there is some discrepancy and WHO is acting on the wish and whim of the Communist Party of China.
There are at least three Chinese vaccine candidates in Phase 3 trial, of which two are developed by state-backed China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and the third from Sinovac Biotech, which may as well be state-backed, who knows. On the one hand, these vaccine candidates are getting all the “support & understandings” from the WHO and on the other hand, the Russian vaccine has been ghosted by the west, international authorities as well as WHO on Chinese behest. How Russia tried to portray and launch its vaccine, shows the amount of importance it gave to the Vaccine and the diplomacy attached to it. And as the dust settles and people come to know how China has been using WHO to dismember and bury Putin’s Sputnik V vaccine diplomacy, it will become clearer to the international community that all is not well between the Sino-Russian relations, and it is not an alliance of all-weather friends as western media wants us to believe, but it has been an alliance of convenience I the face of Unipolar world order under the United States.
The two basic points that even a layman can understand, stating the importance of Russian COVID-19 vaccine programme can be laid down as follows: On the one hand, the declaration and the launch day was a sort of national festival, showcasing hope for the world, it was when he got one of his daughters vaccinated to satisfy the obvious curiosity, & on the other hand, the name in itself, Sputnik V, which signifies the USSR leaping into space and getting the better of the USA’s space programme and showcasing to the world the Soviet scientific edge. Putin wants the COVID-19 vaccine to be the Sputnik-V moment for Russia.
No friend of Russia would work towards destroying what Putin wants to be the gamechanger so assiduously, and China is no friend of Russia. The Russian scientific technology of Fighter Jets is of USSR era and its weapon technology is getting older and older, and now China is hijacking the vaccine diplomacy with the assistance of WHO for furthering its interests, it will not sit well with Russia. And Moscow is keeping track of it all, it knows, China wants Russia to be a secondary ally in the long run and it was confirmed by a series of events in the last couple of years.
The Russians complained against China for stealing Military technology, it should be seen in the background of the Russians being the largest arms supplier to China with 70% of the market share. “Unauthorized copying of our equipment abroad is a huge problem. There have been 500 such cases over the past 17 years. China alone has copied aircraft engines, Sukhoi planes, deck jets, air defence systems, portable air defence missiles, and analogues of the Pantsir medium-range surface-to-air systems,” said Yevgeny Livadny, Rostec’s chief of intellectual property projects.
As reported by TFI earlier, Chinese internet users, including diplomats and officials in recent months, have been claiming that Vladivostok used to be a part of China. And in response to that Russia has increased its military buildup in the Far East Region, with Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday iterated that the decision has been taken because of tensions in the “eastern strategic direction”, referring to an area encompassing Russia’s eastern border with China and the wider Asia-Pacific.
It very well establishes that all is not hunky-dory between Moscow and Beijing as the Western media would want us to believe and portray everything as black and white, making Russia part of the Chinese evil pole. Russia wants to reclaim its rightful place as a superpower, and it being a realpolitik power understands China is following its interests on the expense of the Russians. This is the very reason, the conflicting interests of these two countries need to be observed closely and it will be the new theatre of conflict in the coming days.