Name? Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
Westphalian identity? Indian
Age? 66
Why is he in the news? As India’s Minister of External Affairs, Jaishankar was happy to announce that “The Pharmacy of the World will deliver to overcome the COVID challenge;” referring to India’s recent exports of Covid vaccines to neighboring countries.
Why do we care? Because we like nice quotes? Because we want the global south to receive vaccines? Because India is not always seen as a major aid donor? Because we are interested in who India will target with their vaccine diplomacy and who they won’t (e.g. Pakistan)? Plenty of reasons, you choose!
Why should you care? With over 2 million Covid-related deaths worldwide and life still limited with lockdowns, and social distancing, we’ve all felt the impact of the pandemic. If you want to return to ‘normal’ sooner rather than later, then vaccines need to be provided to the global south just as much as the north. India is trying to meet this challenge so on our How much should you care scale, this gets a 7/10.
Who else cares? Xi Jinping of course. India’s attempts at vaccinating its neighbours bolsters the country’s vaccine diplomacy at the expense of China’s own attempts to do so. By sending doses to Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and others, Jaishankar increases those nations dependency on India; indirectly minimizing their reliance on Xi and his vaccine. In other words, China and India’s soft power rivalry just grew a little more intense in the absence of hard power conflict.
Any further comments? Given that Indian firms produce about half of the world’s vaccine supply, this action shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rather surprising, however, is the sheer amount of vaccines India is sending considering that it has the world’s highest coronavirus caseload. Whether or not Jaishankar and Modi can balance their domestic challenges (including an already upset population of farmers) with their international demands has yet to be determined.
