Vaccine Diplomacy in the Mediterranean: The Contest for Influence

COVID-19, as in other parts of the world, has caused health systems in the countries of the Mediterranean region to suffer medical saturation due to the pandemic. In 2020, international countries tried to help the region by offering medical equipment and general technical assistance. 

In 2021, this situation has grown even more acute as several vaccines have gone onto global markets. The competition for increased influence in the Mediterranean is occurring mainly between China, Russia, the United States and Europe.

These actors have lobbied for their vaccine variants to enter the global market. The Chinese and Russian vaccine variants were initially met with skepticism, but recent preliminary studies have shown that they may be just as effective as the vaccines produced by the US and European companies.

In addition to the public health implications of providing vaccines to the at-risk population, the issue of who can deliver the vaccine most effectively, quickly and economically and thus be a reliable partner and increase their sphere of influence has once again become significant at the geopolitical level.
 

Within this context, Casa Árabe and the Regional Program for Political Dialogue in the Southern Mediterranean of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation (KAS PolDiMed) organized a debate exploring the status of vaccination programs in the Mediterranean region, as well as their geopolitical implications. Participants included Rym Ayadi, president of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists’ Association; Samer al-Atrush, an independent journalist and author of therecent report published by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation and Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs. The event was presented by Thomas Volk, director of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation’s Regional Program for South Mediterranean Political Dialogue and moderated by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator.

Vaccines have been created very quickly due to the pressure and financial support that pharmacists have received. The experts who advised on the priority groups for vaccination and the order of vaccination were those provided by the European Commission, EMA, and the African Union Commission. These have played a major role in giving the green light for vaccines.  
 

Israel tops the list of the most vaccinated countries, followed by the United Arab Emirates and the United States. The data in European countries is clearer and more concise, but once you get to the other side of the pond the information is more opaque. There is no transparency about the distribution or the effectiveness of the vaccines. There is a lack of information.  

In Europe there are problems with vaccination infrastructures, especially in rural areas. So North Africa could not do better, as it depends on Europe. In Europe, as in Russia and the United States, vaccines have not arrived as quickly as expected. Europe has not been able to distribute them as planned, so China and Russia have been able to send millions of doses in the region, and this leads to competition.

In the Mediterranean countries, they want the vaccine anyway, as noted at the Casa Árabe conference, and decision-making has not been transparent. Egypt, for example, has millions of doses from China and Russia, as does Algeria. The latter started with Sputnik V and later with Covax.  

This reflects the diplomatic competition between Russia and China, which are trying to offer other options to the US. Although these two were met with scepticism, they have proven to be effective.   
 

This diplomacy is clearly highlighting global multi-polarisation and the new dynamics in the region. This has allowed for the propulsion of Russia, which has improved its resources and is taking a position as a result of the vaccine.  

Tunisia has not yet started vaccinations and Russia had offered its drug, which the Tunisian government refused, as explained in the debate. Later, when it realised that its European partners could not distribute the vaccine as expected, it returned to the country led by Vladimir Putin to reach an agreement, which was a great victory for Russia.
 

Looking at public health workers preparedness, we see that the world was not ready for the pandemic. The ability to have your own vaccines is possible, countries are trying to have their own, but it is uncertain whether they are effective. The aim is to accelerate the immunisation of the population. It is important to have a clear discussion about the effectiveness of the vaccine, as explained at the Casa Árabe event.  

While such confrontation, such a race and competitiveness is taking place, Mediterranean countries such as Libya and Lebanon are suffering from economic and political crises, as well as other countries in the region are suffering from health and economic crises.