Eduardo Valdés, a former diplomat and member of the Frente de Todos government coalition, which now chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, says there is a clear line between vaccine negotiations and external factors.
“Now is not the time to do ideology. Our goal is for the Western Hemisphere to get its vaccines and not get involved in someone else’s internal affairs,” he told CNN.
Although historically considered Washington’s geopolitical “back garden,” Latin America is increasingly turning to Moscow for help in dealing with the pandemic. Six countries in the region (Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Venezuela) have already authorized the use of the Sputnik V vaccine. Others consider applications for authorization, increasingly urgent, given the scarcity world of available vaccines.
The case of Colombia is an example: Bogota, America’s closest regional ally, is willing to authorize Sputnik V as well, a decision that surprised many due to the close alignment between some sectors of the coalition. government and the Republican Party of the United States. In the past, right-wing members of Duke’s own party, the Democratic Center, have openly criticized Putin’s involvement in Latin America.
In any case, the agreement with the vaccine could be a step towards smoothing things out. “Both countries want to turn the page. It was unfortunate, but we want to move forward,” Sboiko said, adding: “Cooperating on vaccines is the most urgent issue at the moment and will positively influence [Colombia and Russia’s] bilateral relations “.
Sboiko told CNN that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which manages the marketing of Sputnik V, last week filed an application for emergency authorization with Colombian medical agency INVIMA and which is ready to administer 100,000 doses in the 14 days following purchase.
“I think they had to bite the bullet and buy the vaccine regardless of who bought it. And the Russians acted with enormous pragmatism,” Juan Carlos Ruiz, a professor of foreign affairs at Rosario University in Bogota, told CNN.
The ease of doing business
The need to ensure more vaccines is urgently felt in the region. Latin American countries have been among the hardest hit in the world by the pandemic, but large-scale vaccination campaigns have not yet begun, with limited exceptions.
Russia’s willingness to establish agreements has been key to spreading the vaccine to Latin America so far, according to Danil Bochkov, an international relations expert at Russia’s International Affairs Council.
“It’s always easier to deal with the state than with a private company, which has to cover possible risks to fear huge losses. State-owned companies are easier to negotiate, especially when pursuing political goals,” Bochkov told CNN.
Valdes, the Argentine lawmaker, says negotiations with Moscow were easier than with Pfizer, from whom the Argentine government initially planned to buy vaccines. “When we examined the contract, we assessed that those with Pfizer did not meet the legal protocols we expected,” Valdes said. “We contacted the Russians and [Argentinian] President Fernandez was directly linked to Putin, and that made things faster, “he told CNN.
In a statement to CNN, Pfizer said the company remains committed to working with the Argentine government, but declined to comment on the status of the confidential negotiations.
Aside from the ease of negotiations, two more factors have worked to encourage the spread of Sputnik V in Latin America, according to analysts and lawmakers involved in buying vaccines in Argentina and Bolivia: Sputnik V is cheap and is relatively easy to store.
Other privately manufactured vaccines, such as those made by AstraZeneca and Moderna, have not yet arrived in large quantities in Latin America, while countries such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico have invested in Chinese-made vaccines.
What Russia can win
Former diplomats and analysts in Buenos Aires, Bogota and La Paz say Russian President Vladimir Putin could now reap the benefits of spreading the vaccine, which he could use as a global business card to start new and more forgiving relationships.
“Russia made a big bet on the vaccine: in recent years, Russia has rediscovered Latin America, not because of ideology, but because if your goal is to question the norms and values of the liberal international order, Latin America it is a region particularly sensitive to this goal, ”Serbin said.
Both Russia and China are trying to improve their reputation after years of confrontation with the US and the EU, and the role of vaccine supplier for the developing world is a perfect opportunity for a positive public relations campaign. As Bochkov says, “Russia has so far dominated Sputnik V as a diplomatic instrument.”
Commercially, selling millions of doses of vaccine also means making a profit of several million dollars, which is of prime importance to the Russian economy, which has been affected by Western sanctions in recent times.
“The difference is that the United States is working to get vaccines especially to vaccinate American citizens. Others like Russia and China are looking to extend relations where they can,” Pablo Solon, a former Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN.
A missed opportunity for the West?
Western powers could have taken advantage of the political, and even moral, advantage, says Amadeo Gandolfo, an Argentine scholar in political communication at Humboldt University in Berlin. He argues that Western countries missed a key opportunity to claim a moral victory when they allowed companies to patent their vaccines.
“Faced with the absolute need for everyone to get the vaccine, leaving it in the hands of pharmaceutical companies and not allowing a liberalization of the formula, I think it’s something that sidelined some sectors in Latin America,” he said. . CNN.
Now, as with any new patented product, privately developed vaccines are protected by ownership and cannot be reproduced by other companies or countries. Thus, while private companies such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca are struggling to meet compromised orders, other labs cannot intervene to produce the same vaccines and increase supplies.
Instead, many Western countries have invested in the Covax mechanism, a framework promoted by the World Health Organization to buy vaccines in bulk and ensure deliveries to developing countries that cannot afford to buy them alone.
Although Covax promises to inoculate up to 20% of the developing world and says it will prioritize four Latin American countries, including Bolivia and Colombia, for early access, it has not yet administered a single dose.
This will cost Western governments a lot in post-pandemic geopolitics, argues Solon, the Bolivian diplomat. “The world has been multipolar for a while,” he told CNN. “But within this multipolar world, Russia and China are advancing rapidly. This vaccine situation is only strengthening the trend.”