Page 22 - IB May 2021

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Continued from page 12 ment on April 12, PRC Ambassador to Solomon Islands, Li Ming
said: “The move testified to our people’s true friendship and
is no longer exporting AstraZeneca vaccines internationally; strong partnership based on mutual trust and sincere coopera-
Fiji was the early beneficiary of one donated batch from India tion.”
under its Vaccine Maitri initiative. A conservative newspaper The Australian, accused China of
In the south, Australia is the big player. Under an agree- vaccine diplomacy last month, editorialising that it was using
ment with UNICEF, it will procure some six million doses of the supply of vaccines: “to further its strategic interests in
vaccines for allocation across the Pacific this year. It is now countries desperate for help. Doing so is a perverse contradic-
producing the AstraZeneca vaccine domestically at the Com- tion of the responsibility China bears for the pandemic. But
monwealth Serum Laboratories [CSL] in Melbourne, and has that has not stopped it cynically seeking to exploit the crisis
pledged to ship 10,000 doses into the region every week. The for its strategic advantage by pledging vaccine supplies to at
impact of this is already being felt in Fiji, where vaccines least 53 countries.”
are now arriving on a regular basis. Australia has also given Managing the competing agendas of international develop-
A$80 million(US$62 million) in funding to the COVAX Facility. ment partners is hardly a new experience for Pacific leaders.
The recently-announced Australian federal budget included And in countries such as Fiji, where the pandemic is having
A$162.6 million (US$126 million) for “safe and effective vac- a devastating effect on the economy and community trans-
cines in the Pacific and Southeast Asia.” mission has dashed any hope that borders will be reopened
“Australia is doing a fair bit, it’s just that we’re not doing it to tourists soon, leaders are desperate to keep the flow of
multilaterally,” says Development Policy Institute Director, Dr vaccines and other forms of health and budgetary support
Stephen Howes, of Australia’s approach on COVID-response. “I coming.
guess that’s because we want the money to go to our region, WHO’s Western Pacific Office says the recent listing of the
we want it to go to Asia and the Pacific. And I guess we want Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use “has the potential to
diplomatic recognition, or the soft power recognition, the rapidly accelerate COVID-19 vaccine access for many coun-
goodwill that comes with that. tries in the Pacific and globally. To ensure that these vaccines
“I guess the downside of that is that while the Pacific is are being appropriately absorbed into national vaccination
important, Australia is also a middle power, a global player, plans and regulatory requirements completed, WHO is urging
we’re part of the G20, we’ve been invited to the G7 and we the manufacturer to participate in the COVAX Facility and
have an interest in the global response to the pandemic…I contribute to the goal of more equitable vaccine distribution.
think it is both in our interests and we are going to come un- It will be up to Sinopharm to say how many doses of its vac-
der a lot of pressure to do more multilaterally,” he says. cine it can provide to COVAX.”
“This government has a much stronger regional focus—es- Meanwhile Russia has also indicated it is ready to deliver
pecially a Pacific focus—than it does a global focus, and I the Sputnik V vaccine to Papua New Guinea. In other regions
personally think that is a weakness.” such as South America, the US has worked to discourage coun-
Pacific countries and territories affiliated to the US were tries from taking the Russian vaccine, but it has been taken
the earliest recipients of vaccines in our region thanks to up in many other countries, including parts of Europe.
Operation Warp Speed and have had a choice of the Moderna, Still, regional coordination still plays an important role in
Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, enabling eliminating duplication and creating efficiencies says Soakai
them to send the most logistically-appropriate vaccine to at the SPC.
remote outer islands. “Just to have a mechanism where we can get more than 22
France has kept vaccines flowing to French Polynesia, New partners sitting around the table, trying to agree on a com-
Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna, all of whom have seen com- mon way forward in supporting the countries is a significant
munity transmission of COVID-19. achievement.
New Zealand has taken the lead on vaccine support in its “Otherwise it would have been a real mess where you
realm states; Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. Pfizer vaccina- have bilateral conversations going on between countries and
tions started in Cook Islands on May 19, with enough stock in organisations. And again, okay, for instance, with this Fiji
hand to vaccinate all Cook Islanders aged 16 and over. response, because we had the structures of the IMT (Incident
While this support is consistent with the foreign policy focus Management Team), the government had already circulated
of the region’s partners (Australia’s Pacific Step-Up, New Zea- some medical supplies and PPE requests, so the first thing
land’s Pacific Reset etc), the QUAD mobilisation is also seen the donors, all the partners did was call and say, ‘look we
as a response to China’s offers to provide vaccines. have these requests, can we meet, can we see how we can
China was quick to ship the Sinopharm vaccine into Solomon contribute?’”
Islands (50,000 doses) and has donated 200,000 doses to PNG.
It has also offered to give 20,000 doses to Vanuatu. editor@islandsbusiness.com
In a midnight ceremony to welcome the Sinopharm ship-

22 Islands Business, May 2021