Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced on April 6 that, on instructions of the President, he is preparing visits to Moscow, New Delhi, Beijing, and Washington. The official agenda of the trips is vaccines, but in today’s global crisis, “vaccine diplomacy” can open many possibilities for broader discussions!
Ebrard said his mission is to ensure that the commitments made by vaccine producers in those countries are actually met, and, in the case of the United States, to seek greater commitments, even as the principal vaccine-producing countries are carrying out their own mass vaccination campaigns.
Mexico was the first country in Ibero-America to begin to receive vaccines, and even so, only at a rate that has allowed barely over half of its seniors to be vaccinated so far, along with health care workers. Officials are particularly concerned about vaccine supply over the next three months, as Mexico has the third-highest number of COVID deaths in the world, after only the United States and Brazil.
Ebrard made clear, this is not merely Mexico’s problem. He warned that the difficulty of getting access to vaccines “is growing. Inequality of access is also becoming more accentuated,” and further stated, “There are many countries who do not yet have access—incredible at this date.”
Ebrard reviewed the agreements Mexico has reached with each country he is visiting.
