Coronavirus: the rise of medical diplomacy

Text by: Anissa El Jabri

Deliveries of masks, medical gowns or even respirators from one country to another, reception of patients: the spotlight and announcements are multiplying ... But this solidarity, piecemeal in the health crisis which is shaking the world is also a question of image and influence.

Publicity

It is not only in Italy that Beijing heals its influence; China has also sent personnel to Venezuela. Eight specialists, doctors and scientists, arrived on Monday. It was the very first Chinese mission to Latin America. China is, it is true, one of the regime's main allies. Meanwhile, the image of big brother solidarity that wants to give Beijing has taken a blow in the wing in Europe.

First because of the quality of the material sent. The Dutch Ministry of Health had to recall 600,000 filter masks at the end of last week due to loopholes in the protection. Thursday, it was the Spanish authorities who withdrew 58,000 screening tests. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) also announced on Tuesday the launch of an investigation into defective medical equipment imported from China.

In question, too, the attitude of the embassies. In France, between the one where it distributes recipes of traditional Chinese medicine against Covid-19 or the series where it suggests that the pandemic started in the United States, the tweets of the Chinese representation are puzzling to say the least. An amazing way to restore your coat of arms.

Do not allow yourself to be "intoxicated"

Another country very active in the fight against the coronavirus: Cuba. On March 28, Havana sent 39 doctors and nurses to the Principality of Andorra. It is the second European country to which the island provides assistance after Italy. But this medical diplomacy, essentially Russian and Chinese, annoys in Europe. This weekend, Emmanuel Macron called in the Italian press not to be " intoxicated " by the story of certain countries which have widely communicated their aid to the Italian authorities.

" Why don't we say that France and Germany have delivered 2 million masks and tens of thousands of gowns to Italy? Insisted the president. Emmanuel Macron pleaded this Tuesday morning for a reconstruction of " national and European sovereignty " after the coronavirus crisis. In particular, he wants France to acquire its " full independence " in terms of protective masks " by the end of the year ".

This does not prevent France, with the Europeans, from playing its card in this medical diplomacy. Paris Berlin and London thus delivered this Tuesday to Iran medical equipment via Instex, a barter mechanism set up to circumvent American sanctions in January 2019. While the Islamic Republic is badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic (40 (000 people affected and 2,757 dead, according to official figures), the United States still refuses to lift the sanctions reinstated since its withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May 2018.

Washington also participates in this medical diplomacy. After freeing up $ 274 million in aid for 62 affected countries, the US administration announced Tuesday that it will send $ 100 million in medical supplies to Italy, France and Spain. Turkey has also just made a gesture, with the dispatch this Wednesday in Spain of an airplane carrying medical material, and in the next few days for Italy of a Turkish Red Crescent ship.

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• China
• Cuba
• United States
• Coronavirus
• our selection