The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday, January 19th, that the country will export their homemade coronavirus vaccine to six nations. Brazil is not on the list.
The inoculation will be sent to neighbors Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and to the Maldives and Seychelles islands, both in the Indian Ocean. There is also the possibility of including Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius to the list of recipients. In 24 hours, Brazilian states registered more than 62,000 new cases and 1,000 deaths by covid-19.
In a press conference this Monday (18th), the Health Minister, Eduardo Pazuello, said that the Brazilian government has still not received a response regarding the 2 million doses that were set to come from India.
However, he stressed that he expected a decision in the coming days. Last week, the Ministry went as far as decorating a plane to go get the vaccines, but the Indian government has not released the doses.
No agreement
The failure in the negotiations has been interpreted as a disagreement between the Brazilian Health and Foreign Affairs ministries. The latter’s negotiations with the Asian country have so far shown no results.
As a policy to control the spread of the disease, neighboring countries choosing India as a vaccine provider makes sense. In South America, the Brazilian government does not have any partnership agreements for immunization.
Another determining factor that can be pointed to as a reason behind the mismatch is property rights.
India, alongside South Africa, submitted a patent-breaking proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) last year. Brazil did not join the group, breaking apart a consolidated and historic tradition of cooperation between emerging nations.
According to information provided by UOL columnist Jamil Chad, during a closed-door WTO meeting on Tuesday, January 19th, the Indian government stated that the disagreement has set in motion a "worst case nightmare" and that there will be a shortage of vaccines for all. According to the journalist, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry was silent during the meeting.
Edited by: Leandro Melito
