Is America’s Help on the Way?

by Dr Sarala Fernando

Despite the opposition predictions that the US will “punish” Sri Lanka for its pro- China policies, the truth is that the US humanitarian assistance for the Covid 19 crisis has been flowing to Sri Lanka unabated since 2020 despite the crisis in their own country, led by USAID supplying vital PPE including gowns, gloves, masks, safety goggles etc, importantly all purchased in Sri Lanka to help the local economy. Even the US Department of Defence had donated PPE equipment to the value of $191,000.

In 2021, USAID stepped up donations, including 200 portable ventilators. It has re-directed US$ 2.5 million from USAID to support Covid 19 relief and continued to source locally produced PPE, thermal scanners, hand-washing stations, hygiene kits, disinfection sprayers etc. In addition, USAID has re-programmed $5.2 million for working with WHO as key coordinator for Sri Lanka’s Covid response, UNICEF and civil society to handle second and third order effects of the pandemic.

With the new Biden Administration resuming its relationship with WHO, most recently the US allocated 19m doses as the first tranche of vaccine donations to WHO vehicle, COVAX. It was announced by the White House that in Asia vaccines will go to South Asian countries India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Maldives. It is now up to COVAX to confirm the amount of vaccines that it will send to Sri Lanka. It must surely be known that some 600,000 persons in Sri Lanka, mainly seniors, are eagerly waiting to complete the immunity with the second jab, having got the first jab thanks to the generous gift of Prime Minister Modi and the COVAX first round earlier this year.

Everyone knows that Sri Lanka is woefully short of the vaccines required to reach the WHO goal of 20% of population inoculated by end September 2021. Clearly the epidemic in India has been a major cause which has shut down the pipeline to the import of vaccines from the main manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India. The Opposition alleges it is incompetence on the part of the government to secure the required doses on time and being too early to declare victory over the Covid 19 without sufficient testing in the general public. The general public are asking those in power to set out a clear programme of priorities instead of this secret scramble for the remaining vaccines by political grace and favour which has led so many front line workers, from PHIs to nurses, to go on strike.

Yet does the problem also lie in insufficient attention paid to high level networking and mobilizing the traditional pillars of our friendship-with-all foreign policy? The Seychelles President was recently interviewed on international tv where he spoke of his success in obtaining early donations of vaccines through personal interaction with the heads of states of the UAE, India and China. Recently the Indian press gave prominence to a phone call from US Vice President Kamala Harris to Prime Minister Modi where the US has promised substantial donation of vaccines. The US has also lifted restrictions on products required for the expanded manufacture of vaccines in India. However, the special attention to India is understandable as it is a strategic partner of the US and a member of the Quad. Now that the US has announced its policy to donate some 60 million doses of vaccines including Astra Zeneca, has Sri Lanka moved at the highest levels to lobby for the current need of the balance 600,000 doses required to give the second jab to our citizens? In the midst of the Covid crisis, the priority seems to have been given rather to moving the Foreign Ministry building to a new location with all the dislocation that will engender and distress to the staff.

The international shortage in Covid 19 vaccines is the perfect vehicle to test Sri Lanka’s traditional friendship –with- all foreign policy and to avoid the trap of reliance on one or the other of the contending superpowers. To those who argued that our foreign policy should be Indo-centric, India being the nearest regional power, finally when the crisis hit the Serum Institute manufacturing process, it was China who came to our rescue. Even the Sputnik vaccine availability seems to have run into some problem perhaps because of the crisis in India where Russia would be more concerned to supply India’s needs as a long time strategic partner. Now the picture has got even more complex with the US disposing of some 60 million doses of Astra Zeneca which they intend to donate to the developing world as soon as possible. The question is whether Sri Lanka will be able to get the missing 600,000 doses from the US and how should this urgent need be lobbied? Fortunately there is a competent professional at the head of our Embassy in Washington who must be moving heaven and earth right now to secure the deal, all the while combating LTTE rump disinformation and hostile initiatives in the Congress. The question is whether that level is sufficient to bring results given that elsewhere heads of state seem to be picking up the phone to call President Biden, sending their Foreign Ministers to Washington and even chosing to lobby through CNN and BBC interviews as Nepal did recently?

There is another problem; the Sri Lankan Minister in charge of obtaining vaccines recently dismissed attempts by third parties to obtain the missing 600,000 doses in the local roll-out saying most of these offers proved dubious. However, why not empower the local agent for Astra Zeneca to move in this matter as they would certainly be the most competent with regard to quality and logistics. A letter published in the local press from the local agent suggests that their role has been limited to sending information to the State Pharmaceutical Corporation which has insisted on being the sole agent negotiating for the missing doses and at what price. Lack of transparency in this process has led to recent political charges that the price paid for the Chinese vaccines was exorbitant which has in turn led to a storm of social media criticism which must be surely unwelcome to the Chinese.

It has been announced that Pfizer vaccines are also on order, but surely with the cold chain conditions, this cannot be given at mass vaccination sites, so will it now be given through the hospitals? Contrast the hitherto “closed” procedure in Sri Lanka to the opening up in India where even states were given the option to negotiate and purchase the amount of vaccines they required and route them through hospitals – even private ones! It is a classic contrast between the advantages of an open market system with a vibrant private sector against a closed state-centric system, something unthinkable at this time of crisis when the nation’s health safety is at stake and after so many years of a liberalized open market system in Sri Lanka.

(Sarala Fernando, retired from the Foreign Ministry as Additional Secretary and her last Ambassadorial appointment was as Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. Her Ph.D was on India-Sri Lanka relations and she writes now on foreign policy, diplomacy and protection of heritage).