Argentina’s Ambassador to China Sabino Vaca Narvaja made the above statement in an enthusiastic and broad-ranging interview with Página 12 published Feb. 26. Although he’s been stationed at the Beijing embassy for some months, he was only recently approved by the Senate to officially replace former Ambassador Luis Maria Kreckler. Unlike his predecessor, Vaca Narvaja is an expert on China, has published two well-received books on China, and is now deeply involved in planning President Alberto Fernández’s state visit to Beijing in early May.
In the interview, Vaca Narvaja particularly emphasized that China’s assistance to Argentina in the early days of the pandemic “was key to preventing the collapse of our healthcare system.” Before Argentina developed the ability to produce its own PPE, tests, respirators and other medical supplies, China sent 40 planeloads of this urgently-needed equipment which made the difference between life and death for the country. On Feb. 25, Argentina also received its first 1 million doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, with more on the way. Although negotiating a contract to purchase the vaccine was slow at first, he said, President Fernández and his counterpart President Xi Jinping together came to an agreement satisfactory to both sides. “By next month,” the ambassador predicted, “we will be amazed at the quantity of vaccine that China is going to send to the world,” going so far as to say that in a few months, “China will be the sole global provider of vaccines.”
