印度卫生外交:新特点及其局限

India’s Health Diplomacy:New Features and Its Limitations

卫生外交曾长期在印度外交事务中处于较为边缘的位置。新冠肺炎疫情暴发后,印度凭借其“世界药房”的优势,在全球范围内推行“疫苗外交”,并以传统医学和数字公共产品为抓手,积极引领周边抗疫合作。印度的卫生外交呈现出重要性提升、塑造“施惠者”形象、实施范围有效拓展以及强化国际宣传等特点。尽管新冠肺炎疫情为印度打造全球卫生外交“引领者”提供了契机,但其实力和能力与大国雄心抱负之间还存在较大差距。

For a long time,health diplomacy was not an important issue in India’s diplomatic agenda.After the outbreak of COVID-19,India,with its advantage of being the“pharmacy of the world,”has been trying to lead the neighboring cooperation against the epidemic by promoting“vaccine diplomacy”on a global scale and extending traditional medicine and digital public goods.There are four new features in India’s health diplomacy practices:increasing the importance of the health diplomacy,building the India’s image as a“health donor,”broadening effectively the implementation scope of the health diplomacy and strengthening the international propaganda.Although the outbreak of COVID-19 provides an opportunity for India to be a“leader”in global health diplomacy practices,there is still a large gap between India’s strength,capacity and its ambitions as a major power.