Britain takes swipe at countries using vaccine diplomacy to secure influence
- Foreign minister Dominic Raab said there was no doubt some countries were using jabs as diplomatic tool to buy influence
- He said Britain did not support vaccine diplomacy and its contribution would come with no strings attached
“We would only think it was responsible to be promoting vaccines that the WHO has sanctioned as safe to distribute.
“But it’s a team effort. And we want the countries like China and Russia to come together to tackle the problems of pandemic, but also climate change, and also to respect the basic principles of international law.”
Raab said Britain’s contribution would also come with no strings attached, with at least 80 per cent being distributed by the Covax international vaccine initiative.
He said the rest would be provided to “strategic close countries where we have a particular relationship, and no, we don’t insist on conditionality.”
Raab also said he would be speaking to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “shortly”, without giving a specific date for the meeting. He declined to comment on issues he would raise at that meeting.
Nevertheless Raab criticised Russia as a leading proponent of cyberattacks, calling for the G7 to take a united stand against all such incidents, whether conducted by state or non-state actors. “These activities are contrary to international law, many of them, and they’re very damaging, some of them are done for pure theft, or for profit, others are done just to create havoc,” he said.
“We ought to be clear as an international community that cyberattacks on hospitals, on schools, on critical national infrastructure – that’s wrong. That’s unjustifiable, it’s beyond the pale.”
Asked about the recent forced landing of a civilian aircraft in Belarus, Raab said the country was slipping “into pariah status”.
“We need Belarus to step up and live up to the basic, fundamental, cardinal rules of international law,” he said.