That was the theme in India during the first months of 2021, alluding to the farmers' protest in the capital and India’s vaccination drive and the race to vaccinate millions of citizens.

At a time of closed borders and mandatory quarantine, when survival skills bring out an internal sense of selfishness, and global cooperation around sharing scant resources of the vaccine is unheard of, India has adopted a different approach.

But at a time of social distancing globally, India has been active in its outreach exporting vaccines across the globe. While Doctor WHO (World Health Organization) has faced censure for being slow in its pandemic response and now in its vaccine distribution, India has stepped up on the vaccine distribution front to several countries, including Mongolia, to mitigate some of the delays by the WHO.

This is an approach; one where soft power meets concerted diplomatic outreach with India’s vaccine diplomacy.

Dubbed ‘Vaccine Maitri’ or Vaccine Friendship, India has shipped hundreds of vials of Indian-made Covishield vaccines to 71 countries so far. The vaccine is manufactured under licence from Oxford University and British-Swedish Pharma giant, AstraZeneca, but manufactured locally by Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

India donated 13 boxes (150k doses) of the COVID-19 vaccine to Mongolia, making it one of the first 25 countries to receive the vaccine from India. During the donation ceremony, Ambassador of India to Mongolia M P Singh noted the importance of Mongolia for India’s Act East policy as a strategic partner and ‘spiritual neighbour.’

Indian Ambassador to Mongolia Singh and Deputy Prime Minister Amarsaikhan (montsame.mn)Indian Ambassador to Mongolia Singh and Deputy Prime Minister Amarsaikhan (montsame.mn)

Indian Ambassador to Mongolia Singh and Deputy Prime Minister Amarsaikhan (montsame.mn)

So why vaccine diplomacy?

For starters, India is a vaccine powerhouse and produces 60 percent of the world's vaccines and is home to half a dozen major manufacturers. Even prior to the vaccine, India was among the first to supply 100 countries, including the United States, the most infected country at the moment, with the hydroxychloroquine and the paracetamol drug. In addition to this, India has sent pharmaceuticals, test kits and other PPE equipment to around 90 countries.

As Indian Member of Parliament and former UN Diplomat, Shashi Tharoor writes, “in developing vaccines for its own use, the global north overlooked the prohibitive cost of vaccines for poorer countries. Indian-made vaccines, on the other hand, are reportedly safe and cost-effective, and—unlike some others—don’t require storage and transport at very low temperatures”.

Apart from global diligence and a certain sense of altruism, there is the geopolitical merit of India’s soft power combined with its medical and scientific prowess that has been accentuated.

The elephant in the room is the dragon - China.

Furthermore, when it comes to supply chains, that has been synonymous with China. The recent border skirmish for India with China has only exacerbated the rivalry, one where India has been able to leverage its reputation for providing cheap, accessible vaccines to the global south in a safe and efficient manner.

When it comes to China, there is also the Quad, the joint pact between India, United States, Japan and Australia. What started off as naval maritime exercises and a key part of the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy is also playing a part in India’s vaccine diplomacy.

In addition to Covaxin and Covishied, reports claim that India would manufacture the single dose Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine with financing from the US and Japan, while Australia would be involved in shipping it to Southeast Asia and Pacific countries.

As the Quad has increasingly focused on Beijing’s bellicosity in the South China Sea, India has urged the other three members of the Quad to invest in its vaccine production capacity in an attempt to counter Beijing’s widening vaccine diplomacy.

It was noteworthy how China raced to deliver Sinopharm vaccines to its immediate neighbor Mongolia the day after India’s delivery (February 22) and doubled its donation (300k doses) than that of India.

During March last year, when the world was getting acquainted with the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains in China were being disrupted with the global lockdown. Disrupted supply chains in China disrupted meant disrupted supply chains around the world. It was too much for several countries, that realized that they needed a manufacturing alternative, a way to buy supply chain insurance in order to hedge their bets. India has used its pharma manufacturing capacity and global outreach to answer the “if not China, then WHO” question when it comes to the vaccine rollout.

However, there are some concerning critiques. Particularly given that the country has a large burgeoning population of a billion-plus, India has exported more overseas than administered for its own citizens, and hence India may fall short of its own target of vaccinating 300 million of its own citizens (the rough population of the United States) by August this year.

But India sees it differently. As I wrote last year, “this pandemic been unprecedented on so many levels, from Melbourne to Madrid, Seoul to Seattle, Tehran to Tuscany, seldom has the world been confronted with the same geopolitical, economic, national security and health conundrum that the COVID-19 disease has presented."

India, a country that has long been criticized for being too protectionist about its own economy, making it harder for companies to enter the market and exhibiting trepidations on trade deals for this protectionism of its own domestic industries, has eschewed any sense of nationalism and protectionism on the vaccine distribution front and has come to the “First Aid” of many, including Mongolia, which aims to vaccinate its all adult population by this summer.

Akshobh Giridharadas (@Akshboh) is a director of the strategic advisory firm BowerGroupAsia and a former broadcast journalist based in Washington.

The latest data from the United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) showed that 32 percent of destinations worldwide – 69 in total – are now completely closed for global tourism as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Of those, just over half – 38 destinations – have been completely closed for at least 40 weeks, and 34 percent of all destinations are still partially closed to international tourists.

According to the UNWTO report, the emergence of new variants of the Covid-19 virus has prompted many governments to reverse efforts to ease restrictions on travel, with total closures to tourists most prevalent in Asia and the Pacific nations, and Europe.

“Travel restrictions have been widely used to restrict the spread of the virus. Now, as we work to restart tourism, we must recognize that restrictions are just one part of the solution. Their use must be based on the latest data and analysis, and consistently reviewed so as to allow for the safe and responsible restart of a sector upon which many millions of businesses and jobs depend,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili.

The report said that regional differences with regard to travel restrictions remain. “Of the 69 destinations where borders are completely closed to tourists, 30 are in Asia and the Pacific, 15 are in Europe, 11 are in Africa, 10 are in the Americas, and three are in the Middle East.”

Publicly, the EU has dismissed Russia’s global coronavirus vaccine supply campaign as a propaganda stunt by an undesirable regime.

Behind the scenes, the bloc is turning to Moscow’s Sputnik V shot as it tries to get its stuttering efforts to vaccinate its 450 million people back on track, EU diplomatic and official sources told Reuters.

An EU official who negotiates with vaccine makers on behalf of the bloc told Reuters that EU governments were considering launching talks with Sputnik V developers and that it would take requests from four EU states to start the process.

Hungary and Slovakia have already bought the Russian shot, the Czech Republic is interested, and the EU official said Italy was considering using the country’s biggest vaccine-producing bioreactor at a ReiThera plant near Rome to make Sputnik V.

Brussels has been criticised for the bloc’s slow vaccine rollout at a time when former member the United Kingdom is easing restrictions as its inoculation programme gathers pace. Italy is intensifying lockdowns, hospitals in the Paris region are close to being overloaded and Germany has warned of a third wave.

The EU has signed deals with six Western vaccine makers and launched talks with two more. It has approved four vaccines so far but production glitches have slowed its inoculation campaign and some member states are seeking their own solutions.

If Sputnik V were to join the EU’s vaccine arsenal, it would be a diplomatic triumph for Russia, whose trade with the bloc has been hamstrung for years by sanctions over its annexation of Crimea and its intervention in eastern Ukraine.

It would also risk dividing the bloc between those states dead set against giving Moscow any kind of win and those in favour of showing that Brussels can cooperate with the Kremlin.

‘Less desirable’

A second EU official said the ReiThera plant was mentioned by Italian officials at a meeting as a possible site for producing COVID-19 vaccines made by companies other than the Italian biotech firm.

ReiThera, which is 30-percent owned by the state and is developing its own COVID shot, declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Italy’s industry ministry declined to comment on talks about the possible use of ReiThera’s plant to make Sputnik V. She said: “We will produce all authorised vaccines wherever possible.”

A spokesman for the European Commission, which coordinates talks with vaccine makers, said the EU was not required to launch talks with Sputnik V developers, even if the bloc’s drug regulator approves the vaccine.

It was not clear whether states that have ordered Sputnik V in bilateral deals would be interested in joint EU procurement. Spokespeople for the governments in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia did not respond to requests for comment.

Negotiations with vaccine makers have typically lasted months before supply deals were agreed and the EU official said no decision had yet been made about whether to approach Sputnik V developers following internal talks on the matter.

Still, the discussions among EU governments show a remarkable change of tack over the Russian vaccine.

For months, the EU expressed doubts about Sputnik V, citing a lack of data and dubbing the vaccine a foreign policy propaganda tool of the Kremlin.

On February 17, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen questioned Russia’s reasons for exporting millions of doses despite a slow rollout at home, where fewer people have been vaccinated proportionally than in the EU, based on public data.

Even last week, Charles Michel, who chairs EU summits, again cast doubt on Russia’s motives for promoting Sputnik V.

“We should not let ourselves be misled by China and Russia, both regimes with less desirable values than ours, as they organise highly limited but widely publicised operations to supply vaccines to others,” he said. “Europe will not use vaccines for propaganda purposes.”

There were no official reactions from Moscow and Beijing to Michel’s comments, though Russia has previously accused the EU of politicising the issue of COVID vaccines.

Draghi factor

However, the narrative about Sputnik within the EU had already started to shift after peer-reviewed trial data published on February 2 showed it was 92-percent effective, higher than the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot and close to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

There was a new twist on February 25, when Mario Draghi made his debut at an EU summit as Italy’s new prime minister.

The former European Central Bank chief, who is highly regarded in Brussels for saving the euro from its worst crisis years earlier, took an assertive stand on vaccines, telling fellow leaders the EU must buy more doses, including from outside the bloc, and expand vaccine production.

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Italy, traditionally supportive of a softer stance on Moscow, is now pushing EU governments to consider Sputnik V. At a meeting of EU diplomats last Wednesday, Italy’s representative urged the EU to broaden its supply of vaccines, including with the Russian shot, an official who attended the meeting said.

A spokesman for the Italian representation to the EU declined to comment.

Asked about Sputnik V, Italy’s health minister said earlier in March: “If a vaccine works and the regulators tell us that it is safe, nationality is of little interest to me. Italy is ready to collaborate with the Russian government”.

Italy’s overtures follow Draghi’s appointment at the helm of a government supported by the right-wing League party and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia, both of which have long called for EU sanctions on Moscow to be phased out.

EU officials have said, however, that doses are desperately needed now and Sputnik V could come too late to be useful for the bloc when deliveries of the 1.3 billion shots it has already ordered are expected to accelerate later this year.

‘It’s Russian, it’s bad’

Still, any EU reluctance to launch talks with Sputnik V developers could weaken if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approves the vaccine and if member states agree to make the shot at plants in their territories.

On March 4, the EMA launched a rolling review of Sputnik V, the first step in a process that could lead to its EU-wide approval. An EU official familiar with the process said a decision on possible authorisation could come as early as May.

On the production front, Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund last week signed an agreement with Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Adienne to produce small amounts of Sputnik V in Italy, though Rome was not involved in the arrangement.

But if Rome agrees a deal with ReiThera, it would be the most significant endorsement of Sputnik V yet, eclipsing agreements Moscow has sealed with other countries, including Brazil, Argentina and India.

Berlin has also expressed interest in producing Sputnik V in Germany, while RDIF has said it was discussing production deals with several EU countries.

RDIF declined to comment on specific deals with companies to manufacture Sputnik V within the EU, or on any possible change of stance by the bloc towards the vaccine.

Back in Brussels, one EU diplomat said that if the EMA approves Sputnik V, the bloc would likely split between those members in favour of cooperating with Russia and those against.

Ties between Russia and the West, already at post-Cold War lows, have come under renewed pressure recently over the treatment of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, whose jailing prompted Brussels and Washington to impose sanctions on Moscow.

“We will fall into the usual divide: ‘It’s Russian, it’s bad’ versus ‘Well, come on, we need to work together with those people,’” the diplomat said.

“There are some who will not want to give (Russia) this propaganda victory, and there are others who will be seeing this as an opportunity to actually show that we are cooperating.”

SOURCE : REUTERS

Beijing was engulfed by the largest sandstorm in a decade on Monday morning, which originated in Mongolia, causing the visibility in most areas to be less than 1,000 meters and bringing the PM10 close to 10,000 micrograms per cubic meter in the city center.

Beijing issued a yellow warning for sandstorm at 7:25 am, the Beijing Meteorological Observatory said Monday, warning the public to take suitable precautions. With a yellow warning, the public are encouraged to suspend any outdoor activities and to wear protective masks.

The Central Meteorological Observatory called it the most intense sand-dust weather process in China in the past decade, and the range of sand-dust storm was also the widest in the past 10 years.

This wave of sandstorm is a result of the combined effects of cold air and cyclones from Mongolia. It gradually moved southward with the airflow and started to affect Beijing from north to south starting from 3 am, according to the Beijing Municipal Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center.

On Monday, Mongolia's National Emergency Management Agency said that the strong sandstorms in the country have resulted in 10 deaths, and 590 reports of missing persons had been filed. As of press time, one person is still missing.

The wind speeds in various provinces of Mongolia have reached 20 meters per second and there have been gusts of up to 30 to 34 meters per second.

The PM10 in the core area of sand dust in Beijing is close to 10,000 micrograms per cubic meter, the monitoring center said.

The amount of PM10 in Beijing reached an average of more than 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter at 8 am on Monday, and the index topped 2,000 micrograms per cubic meter in some northern areas of the capital.

Wang Gengchen, a research fellow at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that it seems Beijing had not seen an intense sandstorm for years until this one, but actually sandstorm have never gone away.

The sandstorm situation has improved in the last few years as China has made efforts to curb the expansion of desertification and combat the upstream sand and dust from Northern China's Inner Mongolia and neighboring country Mongolia. However, it has proved to be a long battle due to the large areas of sand and dust it covers, Wang explained.

"The concentration of the sandstorm far exceeds the concentration of dust storms that the meteorological department can predict, indicating that we do not have enough knowledge of its nature," Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said in the opening speech to a series of lectures on ecological and environmental knowledge held by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Monday.

"Today's sandstorm is mainly due to natural factors, but it also shows that our ecological environment is still very fragile," he added.

In 1978, China launched the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TSFP). Consisting of forestation in northwest, north and northeast China, the eight-phase project, covering 13 provincial regions making up about 42.4 percent of the country's total land area, is expected to be completed by 2050.

Over the past 40-plus years, over 7.88 million hectares of windbreak trees have been planted, 336,000 square kilometers of desertified land has been managed, and more than 10 million hectares of desertified grassland has been protected and restored, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

The strong sand and dust are likely to continue during the day on Monday and see a downward trend late tonight.

A total of 12 areas including Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Region, North China's Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia, Northeast China, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei will experience sand and dust gradually on Monday.

March 15 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia imposed a two-week restriction on travel of all types of roads linking capital Ulan Bator and the 21 provinces starting from Monday due to resurging COVID-19 cases.

Ulan Bator, home to more than half of Mongolia's population of 3.3 million, is the hardest-hit region in the country.

As of Monday, Mongolia has registered 4,083 COVID-19 cases, while more than 3,000 were detected in Ulan Bator.

In recent days, about 100 COVID-19 infections have been reported daily in Ulan Bator.

March 15 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 122 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national count to 4,083, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Monday.

The latest cases were confirmed after 9,410 tests had been conducted across the country, among which 121 cases were locally transmitted, including five of unknown origin, while another one is a Mongolian national returning from Khazakstan, the NCCD said in a statement.

Mongolia's hardest-hit region is the capital city Ulan Bator, which is home to over half of the country's population of 3.3 million. More than 3,200 of the total confirmed cases in the country were detected in the city.

Meanwhile, 30 more patients have recovered from the disease, taking the nationwide tally to 3,031.

The Asian country has recorded eight COVID-19-related deaths so far

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. With a view to alleviate financial hardship posed by COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and individuals, government of Mongolia and Bank of Mongolia allowed commercial banks to make deferrals on mortgage loan repayment and their interests from April 2020 until October 2020 and then again from November 2020 to July 2021.

According to the central bank of Mongolia, 55,676 mortgages were deferred, totaling MNT 2.9 trillion until July 1, 2021. Around 80 percent or 55,741 of a total of 77,147 borrowers with mortgage debt outstanding have submitted their requests for the deferral since November 2020.

During the period of 7 months until July 2021, a total of MNT 227 billion of repayment has been postponed, including MNT 86 billion as principal payment and MNT 141 billion as interest payment.

In the first two months of 2021, Mongolia traded with 112 countries from all over the world, and the total trade turnover reached USD 2.3 billion, of which USD 1.3 billion were exports and USD 922.3 million were imports. The total foreign trade turnover increased by USD 736.1 million (48.4%), where exports increased by USD 563.8 million (73.2%) and imports increased by USD 172.3 million (23.0%) compared to the same period of previous year. In February 2021, exports reached USD 694.7 million, increased by USD 54.8 million (8.6%) and imports reached USD 463.5 million, increased by USD 4.6 million (1.0%) compared to the previous month.

The foreign trade balance was in surplus of USD 412.3 million in the first two months of 2021, increased by USD 391.6 million compared with USD 20.7 million in the first two months of 2020. Trade with China reached USD 1.6 billion in the first 2 months of 2021, which is 69.6% of the total trade turnover.

Bituminous coal and copper concentrates accounted for 33.5% and 35.8% of total exports to China, respectively, and bituminous coal accounted for 98.7% of total export to Singapore, while fluorspar accounted for 41.7% of total export to Russia.

In the first two months of 2021, USD563.8 million increase in exports from the previous year was resulted from USD217.7 million increase in copper concentrates exports and USD219.4 million in coal exports.

In the first two months, 38.0% of the total imports were from China, 27.9%-- Russia, 8.0% -- Japan, 3.7% -- the Republic of Korea and 3.3% -- Germany, which account for 80.9% of the total imports.

In the first two months, 52.4% of the total imports from Russia were petroleum products, 67.6% of the total imports from Japan were cars, and 6.2% of the total imports from China were electricity, 12.3% -- trucks and 81.5% were imports of other products.

The USD 172.3 million increase in imports from the previous year was mainly due to USD 40.1 million increase in wheat, USD34.6 million increase in trucks, and USD8.0 million increase in cars.

Exports of mineral products, food products, and vegetable origin products made up 92.7 percent of the total export. On the other hand, 64.7 percent of the total imports was mineral products, machinery, equipment, electric appliances, transport vehicle and its spare parts and food products.

Source: National Statistics Office

According to the preliminary results in the first two months of 2021, the total revenue of the general government budget was MNT 1.7 trillion. The equilibrated revenue of the general government budget was MNT 1.6 trillion and 94.6% of the total revenue of general government budget.

On the other hand, the total expenditure and net lending was MNT 1.7 trillion in the first two months of 2021, resulting in deficit of MNT 112.8 billion decreased by USD 7.2 billion or 6.0% compared to the same period of the previous year.

In February 2021, the total equilibrated revenue and grants of general government budget was MNT 961.5 billion, increased by MNT 295.5 billion or 44.4% compared to the previous month. The total expenditure and net lending was MNT 955.8 billion, increased by MNT 171.3 billion or 21.8% compared to previous month. In February 2021, the equilibrated balance of the general government budget was in surplus of 5.7 billion.

The General government budget revenue was comprised of 85.8% from tax revenue, 8.8% from non-tax revenue, 2.5% from the future heritage fund and 2.9% from the stabilization fund. In the first two months of 2021, tax revenue reached MNT 1.5 trillion, increased by MNT 221.7 billion or 17.7% compared to the same period of previous year. This increase was mainly due to MNT 172.0 billion or 84.9% increase in value added tax revenue and MNT 65.4 billion or 16.2% increase in income tax revenue, while MNT 25.1 billion or 8.4% decrease in social security revenue, MNT 8.6 billion or 6.6% decrease in excise tax revenue and MNT 6.4 billion or 5.9% decrease in other taxes revenue.

In the first two months of 2021, total tax revenue was accumulated from 31.8% of the income tax, 25.3% from value added tax, 18.6% from social security contributions, 8.0% from other taxes, 8.3% from excise taxes and 8.0% from foreign activities. In the first 2 months of 2021, value added tax revenue increased by 9.2 percentage points, foreign activity revenues increased by 0.5 percentage points, while social security contributions revenue decreased by 5.3 percentage points and excise taxes revenue decreased by 2.1 percentage points, other taxes revenue decreased by 1.9 percentage points and income taxes revenue decreased by 0.4 percentage points compared to the same period of previous year.

In the first two months of 2021, general government budget expenditure and net lending was MNT 1.7 trillion, increased by MNT 251.1 billion or 16.9% compared to the same period of previous year. This increase was primarily affected by MNT 196.8 billion or 14.8% increase in current expenditure and MNT 39.8 billion or 23.2% increase in capital expenditure compared to the same period of previous year.

Source: National Statistics Office