BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – Although Covid-19 pandemic has already been hitting its third year, Indonesia still prioritizes the vaccines diplomacy/setting up in order to meet the need of complete-dose vaccination and booster according to the target set by WHO.
The support for Covid-19 vaccines keeps running to Indonesia through various distribution schemes; starting from Indonesia’s bilateral collaboration with other country, to its multilateral collaboration with COVAX Facility.
Vaccine diplomacy is a part of health diplomacy promoted by the government through Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kementrian Luar Negeri, Kemenlu) to overcome Covid-19 pandemic.
If the Ministry does not do this kind of diplomacy, it will be hard for Indonesia to fulfil vaccine stock and provide vaccination program for more than 270 million people.
In the newest HI TV content, Association of International Relationship Students (Himpunan Mahasiswa Hubungan International, HIMHI) FISIP Universitas Pasundan provide educational content regarding vaccine diplomacy.
Its content is wrapped in a format of monologue video and presented in a light language. Its video is also made short, but full of information.
Before discussing on vaccine diplomacy, M.Ichsan Kamil, as the narrator who were also FISIP’s delegation in the university-level election for outstanding student, also explained about the definition of diplomacy and its history in Indonesia.
“Issues which are currently widely-spoken are about health diplomacy, especially vaccine diplomacy. Maybe you have wondered once, how can Indonesia get the vaccines distribution and get into the first-grouped country which receive the vaccines? The answer is by vaccine diplomacy,” he explained.
The description about vaccine diplomacy is strengthened by HIMHI FISIP Unpas in the journal article entitled Diplomasi Vaksin: Upaya Cina dalam Menggunakan Vaksin Covid-19 sebagai Alat Soft Power.
“My colleagues of four and I have made the latest research related to vaccine diplomacy which can be accessed in the Journal TransBORDERS,”
Chinese Government uses its capability to produce Covid-19 vaccines to co-work with other country. The foreign policy set by Chinese Government has been implemented to the other poor countries which has difficulty obtaining vaccines.
“Chinese Government also offers its vaccines to poor countries for free. Of course, in exchange for diplomatic cooperation between countries for long-term interests,” he added.
One of the bilateral cooperation carried out by Indonesian government is collaborating with China in the procurement of vaccines. Bilateral diplomatic relations between China and Indonesia have been going on for quite a long time. This is indicated that by the existence of cooperation between China and Indonesia, which involved many sectors/fields, such as culture, economy, and politics.
Indonesia is on the list of priority countries for vaccine distribution from China. Vaccine cooperation with China is quite strong because China is Indonesia’s main trading partner.
“Thanks to vaccine diplomacy, Indonesia has succeeded in meeting vaccine stocks for the population’s needs. Vaccine diplomacy is also used so that low-income countries have the same access [to get vaccination],” he concluded. (Reta)*
