China is working with Japan, India and Australia on a plan to distribute new vaccine crowns to Asian countries to counter Chinese influence.
According to a report in the Financial Times on Wednesday (March 3), people familiar with the matter said the White House has been consulting with members of the Quad in recent weeks on a series of measures to counter China, including providing vaccine aid to the world.
The Biden administration is making the Quad a central driver in its Asia policy, the sources said.
Kurt Campbell, the White House National Security Council’s Indo-Pacific coordinator, is leading the effort and has held several meetings with the ambassadors of Japan, India and Australia.
The people familiar with the matter said the strategy being developed is not just about the new vaccine crown, but something more ambitious and will have a lasting impact, the report said. The source said, “The United States is in the final stages of preparing to implement a major, bold initiative in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The source added that the participants were “acutely aware” of the need to address pan-national issues such as the new pandemic, climate change, and regional security issues. “The quadripartite talks also explored ways to strengthen maritime cooperation and do more in areas such as cybersecurity.
The Financial Times also reported that Tanvi Madan, head of the India program at the Brookings Institution, a U.S. think tank, said the focus on vaccines would ease other Asian countries’ concerns that the “quadripartite talks
If they can demonstrate value to the region, as they did after the tsunami, it will clearly show that it’s not just about these four countries, but it’s a value-add to the region,” she said.
The U.S.-Japan-India-Australia “quadripartite talks” mechanism first began in 2004 when the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami disaster led the four countries to cooperate and coordinate relief efforts.
China is now actively engaged in “vaccine diplomacy” to demonstrate its soft power. French President Emmanuel Macron has called it a “clear diplomatic success. According to the Associated Press, China has pledged to provide about 500 million doses of the new vaccine crown to more than 45 countries.
Despite China’s push for vaccine diplomacy, the effectiveness of Chinese vaccines is in doubt. Some studies and reports on Chinese vaccines claim that data on the vaccines are incomplete and opaque, and that there are large gaps in effectiveness compared to Western vaccines.
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