Remarkable figures
On September 25, 2021, a special ceremony was held at Noi Bai International Airport right after the aircraft carrying State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation landed safely. They had just paid an official visit to Cuba and attended the 76th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The ceremony was held to receive the vaccine batch, medical supplies and equipment carried on the same flight to support the country’s COVID-19 prevention and control.
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President Nguyen Xuan Phuc witnessing the reception of Abdala vaccine at Noi Bai airport |
Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Foreign Minister Dang Hoang Giang said that one of the outstanding outcomes of the President’s business trip was the support of the international community to Vietnam’s COVID-19 prevention and control.
Apart from 1.05 million doses of Abdala vaccines from Cuba carried by the President’s airplane, many countries and partners pledged to give 1.5 million vaccine doses to Vietnam. The U.S. also committed to present a huge number of vaccine doses to Vietnam through the COVAX mechanism.
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President introducing the Cuban Abdala vaccine |
At the working session between the Vietnamese President and Pfizer, the company pledged to hand over 31 million vaccine doses to Vietnam in 2021 and an addition of 20 million doses for children when the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine are confirmed. In addition, numerous partners and overseas Vietnamese in the U.S. pledged to give medical supplies, worth USD 8.8 million in total, to the country.
Over the past year, many similar flights carrying vaccine batches have arrived in Vietnam thanks to the proactiveness of the vaccine diplomatic activities.
The strategies of vaccine and vaccine diplomacy of Vietnam have been implemented seriously and basically at all levels, especially at the senior level. The Party General Secretary, the President, the Prime Minister, and the Chairman of the National Assembly as well as leaders of the ministries and sectors consider the vaccine diplomacy one of the top priorities. The call for countries, international organizations and businesses to support Vietnam with vaccines has also been made by the Party and State leaders at many bilateral and multilateral forums. These efforts have helped foster the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. By December 20, 2021, the whole country had injected nearly 139,5 vaccine doses to the people. According to the Ministry of Health, the speed of the vaccination campaign of Vietnam ranked third across the globe, right after China and India. These figures speak for themselves!
The special diplomacy strategy continues
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Deputy Defense Minister Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien and Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Nam Xiong Bo during the handover ceremony of Sinopharm vaccine doses from the Chinese Ministry of National Defense |
The Politburo, the Secretariat, the Government, the Prime Minister and the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control made early forecast and comprehensively directed the pandemic prevention and control right after it emerged. The vaccine diplomacy has been considered as a spearhead of the COVID-19 fight.
As a result, from March to mid-December 2021, Vietnam received 172 million of COVID-19 vaccine doses from the international community. Furthermore, many traditional partners gave the country medical supplies to serve the pandemic prevention and control.
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Transporting Sinopharm vaccine presented by the Chinese Ministry of National Defense to the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense |
Also, the vaccine diplomacy strategy has proved the determination of the Vietnamese Party and State in protecting the people’s health and mobilizing all sources to fight the pandemic and recover the economy. The strategy has shown that protection of the people is always Vietnam’s top priority, display the humane nature of a human-oriented political system.
The world is still facing new waves of COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, there are not any better strategies for Vietnam than the vaccine. Moreover, the vaccine strategy is more important when the country shifts the targets of the pandemic fight from “Zero COVID-19” to "Safe adaptation, flexibility and effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
To implement the targets, the country needs to continue enhancing the vaccine diplomacy campaign at all levels. The Government's working group on vaccine diplomacy has built the vaccine purchase plan for 2022 to ensure vaccine doses for children and extra shots for adults as well as improve capabilities of medical facilities at the grassroot level.
2022 is forecast to be a very challenging year as the pandemic’s shadow continues to fall down on the world, especially when the whole world has to face the emergence of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In that context, Vietnam’s vaccine diplomacy achievement will be a valuable fulcrum for the country to enter a new year with hope of repelling the pandemic and regaining peaceful life for the people.
Translated by Trung Thanh