China has committed to provide at least 463 million doses of its home-made Covid-19 vaccines through exports and donations across the world from Asia to Africa, Europe and Latin America, according to certain Reuters calculations. Needless to say, the paper dragon is looking to rework on its dilapidated and highly tarnished image globally. Already, the red-rogue country is seen as the sole culprit of the ongoing pandemic. Aware of the same, it is looking to also become the nation which helps the world recover from the pandemic by distributing millions of doses of its fake, inefficient and unsafe vaccines.
India, however, is not letting China succeed in its soft power projection goals, and has teamed up with the other Quad countries. According to a Reuters report, Quad members – Japan, Australia and the US have decided to invest in India’s vaccine production capacity, and a financial package to the same end could be announced as early as Friday, when the Quad leaders will virtually meet for the first time.
The financing agreements will be between the United States, Japan and others and focus particularly on companies and institutions in India manufacturing vaccines for American drug makers Novavax Inc and Johnson & Johnson, a senior US administration official, who did not want to be identified by name, told Reuters. The aim of the initiative by the Quad, which groups the United States, India, Japan and Australia, would be to reduce manufacturing backlogs, speed vaccination, and defeat some coronavirus mutations, the official said.
However, apart from humanitarian goals, the primary aim of the Quad countries is also to cut China to size, and render its vaccine industry bereft of any global demand, as India takes to ridding the world of a disease spread by the paper dragon. Two senior Indian officials, meanwhile, told Reuters that the Quad alliance was stepping up efforts to expand global vaccination to counter China’s growing soft power. India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, believes it is best placed to steer the effort, the report said.
Already, India’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ programme has been a global hit, and New Delhi’s soft power across the globe has seen a tremendous rise. China, well aware of such diplomatic muscle being humanitarianly flexed by India around the world, has therefore started preying upon the global vaccine market. Yet, it does not realise that India is now part of a formidable anti-China alliance which will inhibit, discount and discredit Beijing’s growth, or attempts thereof, at every step of the way. Meanwhile, India is all set to become the vaccine hegemon of the world, especially after financial assistance from its Quad partners.