Paris, March 4 (AFP/APP):Covid-19 vaccines are not just coveted as protection from the deadly virus, they are also a currency in the battle for global influence, experts say, especially between China and Russia. While the United States has been saving its vaccines for Americans, and Europeans struggle with delivery, Beijing and Moscow, as well as India, have been brushing up their prestige by sharing vaccine stocks with poor, vulnerable countries. “Getting these vaccines into the arms of billions of people is now the most pressing challenge for the international community. This is, in a manner of speaking, the ‘new arms race’,” according to The Soufan Center, a research body. China, which was already ahead of the game at the start of the pandemic with the distribution of masks, has been supplying several countries with vaccines, sometimes for free. Some 200,000 doses each went to Algeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, 500,000 to Pakistan and 750,000 to the Dominican Republic. “China managed to present itself as a champion of the southern coutries at a time when the north showed complete selfishness,” Bertrand Badie, a professor for international relations at Sciences-Po university in Paris, told AFP. Russia, meanwhile, is proudly distributing its … Continue reading How vaccines became ammunition in global diplomacy