疫苗外交：印度尋求進行廣泛輸出以抗衡中國

Recently Yahoo news on-line reported the following:

Vaccine diplomacy: India seeks to rival China with broad shipments

Sanjeev Miglani

Reuters Sun., February 7, 2021, 2:56 a.m.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has approved the shipment of COVID-19 vaccine to Cambodia and plans to supply Mongolia and Pacific Island states, officials said on Sunday, as supplies arrived in Afghanistan - all part of the country's widening vaccine diplomacy.

Seeking to steal a march over rival Asian giant China, which has also promised to deliver shots, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been giving nearby countries millions of doses of the locally made AstraZeneca PLC vaccine, even as its domestic immunisation programme has just begun.

Modi is using India's strength as the world's biggest maker of vaccines for various diseases to improve regional ties and push back against China's political and economic dominance.

New Delhi has approved 100,000 doses for Cambodia on an urgent basis following a request to Modi from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, India's envoy to Phnom Penh said.

Cambodia is an important ally of China, which is expected to provide a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, mainly developed by state firm Sinopharm.

"The supply has been assured through the Serum Institute of India despite innumerable competing requests from partner countries and our commitment to our domestic population," said Ambassador Devyani Khobragade.

India has given doses to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to help them get started with frontline workers as part of its Vaccine Friendship initiative.

On Sunday it sent 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Afghanistan, the first to arrive in the war-ravaged country, which is still waiting for emergency approval from the World Health Organization to administer them.

India has invested millions of dollars in Afghanistan over the years in an expansive effort seen as pushing back against arch rival Pakistan's influence in the country. "The vaccines are being provided on a grant basis," a government source said.

So far, India had supplied 15.6 million doses of the vaccine to 17 countries either through donations or commercial contracts, said foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava.

Consignments will be sent to Mongolia, Caribbean countries and Pacific Island states in the coming weeks, he said. "External supplies are an ongoing process, depending on availability and domestic requirement," he said.

India, which has the world's second-highest caseload of coronavirus, plans to immunise 300 million people by August. It vaccinated about 3 million healthcare workers in the first two weeks of the campaign that began on Jan. 16 and will need to step up the pace to meet the summer target.

Translation

新德里（路透社）- 印度官員們週日表示，隨著疫苗供應到達阿富汗，印度已批准將COVID-19疫苗運往柬埔寨，又計劃向蒙古和太平洋島國輸送。這是該國擴大其疫苗外交的部分內容。

總理納倫德拉·莫迪（Narendra Modi）的政府試圖通過輸送疫苗, 在與亞洲大國中國的競爭獲得優勢, 儘管中國已承諾會輸出疫苗。即使印度國內免疫計劃只剛剛開始，印度政府仍在向附近國家提供數百萬劑本地生產的阿斯利康PLC疫苗。

莫迪正在利用印度作為世界上最大的各種疾病疫苗生產國的實力, 去改善地區聯繫並反抗中國的政治和經濟主導地位。

印度駐金邊特使說, 在柬埔寨總理洪森緊急要求莫迪之下，新德里已緊急批准向柬埔寨提供十萬劑量。

中國是柬埔寨的重要盟友，預計將提供一百萬劑COVID-19疫苗, 主要是由國營國藥集團研發出来。

Devyani Khobragade大使說： “儘管合作夥伴國家提出了無數相互競逐的要求，而且我們又要面對國內人民的承諾，但印度通過Serum 研究所確保了這供應。”

作為“疫苗友誼計劃”的一部分，印度已向緬甸，孟加拉國，尼泊爾，斯里蘭卡和馬爾代夫施藥，以幫助他們的一線工作人員開始運作。

在星期日，它向阿富汗運送了500,000劑阿斯利康疫苗。這是第一個到達阿富汗 -  一個飽受戰爭蹂躪的國家。阿富汗仍在等待世界衛生組織的緊急批准來進行注射。

多年來，印度已在阿富汗投入了數百萬美元，這是一項巨大的努力，被視為是在對抗其主要對手的影響。政府消息人士說：“疫苗是在贈款的基礎上提供的。”

外交部發言人Anurag Srivastava表示，到目前為止，印度已經通過捐贈或商業合同向17個國家提供了1,560萬劑疫苗。

他說，藥物將在未來幾週內寄往蒙古，加勒比海國家和太平洋島國。他又說：“外部供應是一個持續的過程，取決於供應情況和國內需求。”

印度有世界上第二高的冠狀病毒病例，計劃到八月止為3億人提供免疫接種。自1月16日開始的接種運動的兩週内，它為約300萬醫護人員接種了疫苗，並需要加快步伐以實現夏季目標。

              So, “Vaccine diplomacy” would become a new term to describe the flow and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine. It is interesting to know that China and India are competing in this respect.