Central Asia is considered Russia’s “backyard,” but as China’s ambitions become more apparent, Sino-Russian rivalries in the region are heating up. The Nikkei Asian Review reported on July 7 that Kazakhstan has begun administering Sputnik V, a Russian-developed vaccine for Wuhan pneumonia (a new coronavirus disease, COVID-19), and Turkmenistan is about to start, indicating that Russia is leaving China behind in the diplomatic war over vaccines in Central Asia.
According to the report, the British medical journal The Lancet published the data of the phase 3 clinical trial of Sputnik V vaccine on the 2nd, and the effectiveness reached 91.6%, which was praised as “safe and effective”. In contrast, Uzbekistan is the only country in Central Asia that has joined a large clinical trial of the Chinese vaccine.
According to the analysis, in addition to the fact that Russia is its main political ally, another important factor for Kazakhstan to take the lead in choosing the Russian vaccine is the country’s general distrust of China. In recent years, there have been demonstrations against China’s expansion and its infiltration of the country, so the Chinese vaccine naturally aroused hostility.
Meanwhile, while Uzbekistan has ordered 35 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine, it has also cooperated with Chinese company Anhui Zhifei Longkoma Biopharmaceutical Company to conduct clinical trials of the company’s Wu Lung vaccine, and recently increased the number of subjects in Phase 3 from 5,000 to 9,000.
Analysis shows that Uzbekistan is the most receptive country to China’s “Epidemic diplomacy” among Central Asian countries. The country sees China as its main partner and has grown closer to Beijing during the epidemic, with economic ties with China an important part of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s plan to revitalize the country’s economy.
However, in the eyes of the Uzbek general public, Russia is still the best partner to help them deal with the epidemic crisis. According to a poll, nearly 60 percent of Uzbek respondents trust Russia more, while more than half of Kazakh respondents trust Russia and up to 75 percent in Kyrgyzstan.
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