Australia Chooses Regionalism Over Nationalism With Vaccine Pledge

Australia has begun preparations for a COVID-19 vaccine, even though a viable solution is still at the very least several months away. In mid-June the Australian government signed a letter of intent with the British-Swedish drug company AstraZeneca to locally manufacture a vaccine, should the company’s trials – currently being undertaken at Oxford University – prove successful.

While this letter of intent is one based on hope, there is also an element of prudence in Canberra’s move. As soon as there is a successful vaccine, the logistical exercise to roll it out quickly and effectively will be immense. There will need to be a plan in place for priority recipients to be vaccinated, such as health care workers, people at a higher risk with compounding pre-existing conditions, as well as a plan for the regions that have the most pressing requirements.

But here is where things could get messy, with the World Health Organization warning against what it has termed “vaccine nationalism.” This would involve powerful states scrambling to secure access to a vaccine for themselves, exclusively, at the expense of smaller or less wealthy states that don’t have the purchasing power to compete or the manufacturing capabilities to produce such a vaccine locally. Other concerns stem from the possibility, as China has hinted, that access to the vaccine could be tied to submission to Beijing’s desires and policy preferences.

To counter these inclinations, in his announcement about the letter of intent with AstraZeneca, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the promise that Canberra will distribute a vaccine throughout the Pacific Islands. Morrison stressed that this was part of Australia’s obligations toward its “Pacific family.”

Morrison also said he had been in discussions with Indonesian President Joko Widodo to assist in the vaccine roll-out in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, which may require help.

Signaling this intent early, and trying to put the infrastructure in place to roll out a vaccine regionally, is a smart move by Australia. It provides its Pacific neighbors with reassurance that they won’t simply be cast aside in the rush to secure a vaccine, and demonstrates Canberra’s commitment to the region will not weaken even in times of domestic difficulty.

While several countries throughout the Pacific – Tonga, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Kiribati – have managed to avoid any cases of the virus reaching their shores, this does not mean that they do not need access to a vaccine. These are countries that rely heavily on tourism to generate income, and even though they could make having been vaccinated a condition of travel, that would not be an airtight system. Access to a vaccine is essential in order for these small island states to protect themselves once they are able to open up to tourists again. 

In areas of the Pacific like Papua New Guinea (PNG), where the virus is making an impact, the coordination of a vaccine roll-out will take considerable planning due to the informal nature of the society and the remote and difficult to access nature of much of the country. 

Australian aid groups have welcomed Morrison’s commitment to the Pacific, but are urging the government to not draw on Canberra’s existing aid budget for the plan, as has become a common practice by the government when implementing new programs, such as the Coral Sea Cable to provide high speed telecommunications access for the Solomon Islands and PNG. The CEO of the Australian Council for International Development stated in response to Morrison’s announcement that “in order to do this effectively, new resources are required. Otherwise, we risk running down other critical areas of development cooperation and compromising existing relationships.”

The Australian government taking the initiative to cooperate with Indonesia on a potential vaccine roll-out is also a smart move. Although its economic and security ties with Jakarta may not currently be where Australia would like, there is an understanding in Canberra that building a close and trusting relationship with Indonesia is of paramount importance. These habits of cooperation are developing, and cooperation on the greatest dilemma currently facing the world would significantly consolidate this trajectory.

There are still a lot of unknowns around the development of a vaccine, and the letter of intent that Australia has signed with AstraZeneca may come to nothing. Yet Canberra sending a strong signal that it will eschew vaccine nationalism for a vaccine regionalism is a positive development. It will help to maintain and build on the trust it has with its neighbors, even if the wait for a solution to this crisis is prolonged.