This brief reviews the Eastern Partnership countries’ responses to “vaccine diplomacy” that major states targeted at them.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia and China openly targeted the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries with their “vaccine diplomacy”, while the EU and US engaged in less visible vaccine diplomacy, Ekaterina Pierson-Lyzhina explains in her brief research paper. The Eastern Partnership members’ responses varied according to their geopolitical orientation. Ukraine and Georgia categorically refused Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, while the other states accepted it; Belarus even started producing the vaccine on its territory.
Another cleavage concerned the six states’ participation in the US, EU and UK-sponsored COVAX vaccine-sharing mechanism to assist developing countries: Belarus alone refused to join the scheme for political reasons. Against a backdrop of Russia-EU political tensions, Russia focused on a disinformation campaign discrediting Western vaccines within the EaP region, while China discreetly secured commercial deals with some EaP countries.
Read brief research paper “Vaccine diplomacy” targeted at Eastern Partnership countries.
