US to prioritize vaccine shipments to Latin America after Honduras threat to stop recognizing Taiwan in favor of China

The United States government will give Latin America a priority place in the distribution of the 80 million COVID-19 inoculants it plans to donate in the coming weeksIn part, to prevent China’s “vaccine diplomacy” from reaching China in return, countries in the region stop recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation.

As reported by the Financial Times, intend was confirmed by a senior official in Joe Biden’s administration, and it comes after Honduras recognizes possibility of severing ties with Taipei to access the inoculants produced by the Asian giant.

Carlos Alberto Madero, a senior government official in Tegucigalpa, said that Although the country wants to avoid this scenario, getting vaccines is “much more urgent than anything else”. “It puts us in a very difficult situation,” Madero said. “The Honduran people are starting to see that China is helping their allies and we are starting to wonder why ours are not helping us.”

The Central American nation has not been able to purchase a large amount of vaccine so far and has suffered long delays in delivering already signed contracts. To date, less than 1% of its 9 million inhabitants have been vaccinated.

In this way, and given the urgency of obtaining immunizations, Madero warned that this situation could “undeniably lead to changes in foreign policy”. He also said the Honduran government had requested vaccines from the United States and was promised help, but so far it has not received any.

The US official, for his part, said the Biden administration would help Honduras and other countries in the region., but did not specify a timeline. “Help is on the way and we will truly keep it, when the Chinese have often made promises but failed to keep them… We cannot blame other countries for accepting vaccines. They have the responsibility to vaccinate, but nothing that China gives is free, ”he warned.

The US State Department has assured to be “deeply concerned” for the challenges facing Honduras. “Beijing explodes [la pandemia] to coerce vulnerable nations, “warned Marco rubio, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Washington has stepped up diplomatic engagement with Paraguay after the Chinese regime offered to provide it with vaccines in return for giving up diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. At the time, the Secretary of State Antony blink contacted Mario Abdo Benítez, President of Paraguay, in a move which, according to a US official, was aimed at providing public support to Taiwan’s allies.

This maneuver by the Xi Jinping regime is not new. In recent years, Beijing has used its economic might to persuade a third of Taiwan’s allies, including Panama in 2017 and El Salvador and the Dominican Republic in 2018, to change their diplomatic recognition. This has intensified since the start of the pandemic.

Taiwan accused China of “using vaccines to trade political and diplomatic benefits with countries in urgent need”, calling it a “shameful act”. Taipei, like several countries in Central America, is redoubling its efforts to obtain vaccines for its own population, amid its first major coronavirus outbreak.

According to Financial Times, more than half of the 144 million doses delivered to the ten most populous countries in Latin America were delivered by China.

Honduras, for the moment, has not been awarded a contract for the supply of Chinese vaccines. “We believe that geopolitics plays a role with vaccines (…) Of course, we are starting to see that countries which have more relations with China have more access to vaccines”Madero recognized.

Juan Orlando Hernández, President of Honduras, even raised the possibility of opening a trade office in China to try to improve relations with the Xi Jinping regime.

During a presentation to the United States Congress, one of the leading experts on China’s role in the region explained that the vaccine shortage and the need to emerge from the pandemic and the resulting socio-economic crisis make Latin American countries more and more permeable to vaccine diplomacy China, Russia It is included Cuba.

“In the context of such a great need, and with the United States providing little support for vaccines to date beyond their contributions to COVAX, China, Russia and now even Cuba have filled the void“, He said Evan ellis before the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civil Security, Migration and International Economic Policyl of the House of Representatives last Thursday.

“Vaccines, in a way, have become another business opportunity for the People’s Republic of China, resembling Chinese behavior in other sectors (…) In fact, the People’s Republic of China has established a $ 1 billion loan fund to help Latin American governments buy vaccines made in China, as well as lend money to Latin American governments to build infrastructure projects with their own companies, teams and workers, ”he added .

In the case of China, the expert stressed that it was providing its vaccines Sinovac, Sinopharm Yes CanSino in at least 12 Latin American countries. “Chinese vaccines already represent 62% of all vaccines contracted by Chile, 45% of vaccines from Peru and 30% of those from Argentina”.

The Joe Biden government, for its part, assured this Wednesday that the United States will be the largest distributor of vaccines in the world, after increase the doses it will deliver to the rest of the world to 80 million, which will be distributed via the COVAX platform and also in coordination with partners in Washington.

Gayle Smith, appointed as the State Department’s coordinator for the global response to COVID-19, said a final decision on where to donate vaccines has yet to be made. “We are looking at all regions of the world and they are all in need. We are studying how to get the maximum coverage and where they will be most effective. The demand is everywhere, ”he said at a press conference.

“(United States) It will be the largest vaccine distributor to date (…). 80 million is a start, we think there will be more shared doses in the world. The United States wants to lead by example, but it requires everyone’s effort and we are going to see other countries increase shared vaccines ”, added Smith, nominated by Biden in April.

In this sense, he confirmed that the White House will allocate a significant portion of the doses to the platform. COVAX (The Global Vaccine Access Fund has focused on low-income countries), but it is also working with partners, such as the G-7 and the European Union, to define the global response.

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