EXCLUSIVE| With 'Vaccine Maitri', India pulls off diplomatic coup against China in Africa

Commercial sales to African countries by the two producers are the second route. Earlier this month, Zimbabwe became the first African country to authorize the use of Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International and the Indian Council of Medical Research. The company has indicated that further talks are also on with other nations.

But due to its global connections and deep pockets, rival Astrazeneca has been able to negotiate with more nations and for larger shipments of its Covishield vaccine. Case in point, it has sold 1 million doses to South Africa, which the nation controversially later said it plans to share with other African countries.

However, the largest route is eventually expected to be the United Nations-backed COVAX initiative which commercially sources vaccines from major vaccine producers to distribute in underdeveloped nations. Back on February 24, the West African nation of Ghana became the first country in the world to receive vaccines under the COVAX initiative with a delivery of 600,000 AstraZeneca jabs made in India.

As of 19 March, New Delhi has supplied 5.96 crore doses of Made in India vaccines to 72 nations across the world, as a result of both the producers based in India having entered into bilateral contracts or through the Covax initiative, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on March 18.

He also stressed that since the beginning of the pandemic a year ago, India has provided medical supplies such as hydroxychloroquine, paracetamol and other relevant drugs to a total of 150 nations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of this, 82 were given as grants.

Meanwhile, while China has donated doses of its indigenously developed Sinopharm vaccine to few nations like Namibia, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt and Tunisia, most are not keen on associating with the country, a foreign diplomat said.

Scramble for Africa

Since 2013, Beijing has aggressively stepped up its outreach which focuses on providing long term loans to African nations for crucial infrastructure projects. According to the China Africa Research Initiative at John Hopkins University, African governments and their state-owned enterprises have been dished out upwards of $148 billion worth of loans till 2018. More than a thousand separate loans have been given by Chinese government, banks, and contractors. Upwards of $2.7 billion was also funneled by way of overseas foreign direct investment to the continent from China till 2019.

Recognizing this challenge, and further aiming to expand India's list of export destinations, the Narendra Modi-government made Africa a priority in foreign policy since coming to power. "Resources in the form of line of credits and trading concessions have been redirected to African nations and official visits have been stepped up massively over the past few years," a senior official overseeing India's outreach to Africa, said.

Modi himself had kicked off a list of state and delegation level visits in 2016 when he went to Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya in South East Africa, India's traditional backyard owing to historical, cultural ties and a large Indian diaspora. In 2018, the PM went up the map on visits to the East African nations of Rwanda and Uganda. Multiple trips to South Africa for BRICS meetings have also been made.

India has also held three India-Africa Forum Summits, with the fourth summit scheduled for 2020 being postponed to 2021 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.