Eastern Europe Security Institute (EESI) based in Kyiv, Ukraine has published a report under the title “Security Challenges in Eastern Europe in 2021: COVID-19 Diplomacy or Vaccine as an Instrument in Turf Wars?”
This report has been prepared on the basis of the online conference attended by: Yuliia Osmolovska, member of the board of the Eastern Europe Security Institute, Juris Poikāns, Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia to Ukraine, Vasyl Bodnar, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Krševan Antun Dujmović, M.Sc., Senior Associate at the Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO).
The participants of the discussion during the conference have tried to give an answer to the question on how the great powers like China and the Russian Federation have been using their vaccines in “COVID-19 Diplomacy” in order to foment their influence in Eastern Europe and in some member states of the European Union.
During the spring of 2021, while Europe was faced with the shortage of vaccines, couturiers like Serbia and EU member state Hungary have turned to importing Russian and Chinese vaccines, even though these vaccines have not been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
