Through the vaccine to political goals

"We have an Eastern and a Western vaccine. Both have the same medical goal, but completely different political goals," says Igor Pellicciari, a professor at the University of Urbino and LUISS in Rome.

The vaccine should be a politically neutral, life-saving medical resource, but experts warn that it is being distributed around the world primarily according to political and geostrategic spheres of influence.

"We can talk about two philosophies that currently exist when it comes to vaccines: Eastern and Western. We have, as I call it, an Eastern, political vaccine, and the West we have an economic one. They both have the same medical goal, but completely different political goals.

Eastern is state-owned in all aspects, from planning, through research to production and distribution. The East is divided on the basis of foreign policy interests, meaning it is a purely geopolitical instrument. In the West, on the other hand, we have a situation where all of us, including heads of state and government, are dependent on private companies, and it is therefore not directly political, "said Igor Pellicciari, a professor of international relations at the University of Urbino and LUISS in Rome.

The behavior of Russia and China is not surprising, the behavior of the West is surprising

And while, for example, the United States, Great Britain, and the EU itself are trying to vaccinate their own population first, Russia is currently exporting its Sputnik V vaccine to more than 50 countries, and China, according to the latest official data, to 27 countries.

"What Russia and China are doing is not surprising at all because they have a long tradition in it, the so-called soft power, and I don't see anything new in that," says Professor Pellicciari. What he says is surprising is the situation in the West.

“We have a feeling that the West has fallen asleep a little or is too dependent on private pharmaceutical companies,” he says. As far as the EU is concerned, Pellicciari says that the coronavirus pandemic has shown that the multilateral level is not capable of making quick decisions. "Unfortunately, the multilateral level simply does not work," he says.

"But in a year we will all have a vaccine. The situation will be like now with masks, which we have on every corner today. But at the moment we have a geopolitical gap and I think now the political problem is on the side of the West," says Professor Pellicciari.

When it comes to the current distribution of vaccines on the Russian and Chinese sides, he says that there is competition in that between Russia and China, but that it is not as noticeable as between the East and the West. "Russia's economy is much weaker than China's. What makes Russia one of the main international players today is not its economic performance but its technological capabilities, and we see them when it comes to vaccines. China also plays in terms of health, but its

main instrument is the economy. "It should come as no surprise, then, that Russia is more active in vaccine diplomacy than China," he says.

Regarding the doubts in the EU about the Russian vaccine, he says that they have nothing to do with the quality of the Sputnik V vaccine, but that it is a political problem: "We must openly say that if there is a problem with the Russian vaccine, then it is Russian and nothing else." In the general debate about which vaccine is better, he sees pure competition, which again differs in the East-West relationship: "In the West, it is a marketing competition, in the East it is a geopolitical one."

Donors have more interest than recipients

And when it comes to global vaccine diplomacy and its effects on the Western Balkans, Pellicciari says Russia and China are taking a geopolitical advantage: "It's interesting what's happening in the Western Balkans where donors have always been the EU, America, etc. They're suddenly gone. It is not surprising that Russia and China are playing that game, but it is surprising that the West did not appear at the beginning of that race. This will have to be resolved if a balance is to be maintained in current international relations, "said the professor, who focuses on international aid and its effects. Providing state aid is a legitimate foreign policy instrument, he said. But what is important to understand is which is in the interest of the assisting state. "Donors often have more political interests than aid recipients, and in this new chapter we will have political interest from Russia and China at some point. Whether it will be in the direction of stabilizing the Western Balkans or maintaining this situation is too early to say," says Igor. Pellicciari. It is sad, Pellicciari concludes, that unresolved problems are breaking down on the backs of the civilian population, but this time not only in the Balkans, which we are used to, but, as we see, all over the world.