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Josep Borrell’s Misguided Views on Chinese Vaccines in Africa

by Eric Olander
European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell addresses a joint press conference after a Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on July 12, 2021. JOHN THYS / AFP

European Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell is really unhappy with how the bloc’s member states have hoarded vaccines for themselves at the expense of developing countries in Africa and Latin America. On Friday he criticized the EU’s contributions to those regions as “insufficient.”

While it would have been admirable if Borrell’s call for action were aimed at rectifying the U.S. and Europe’s massive moral failing in their initial refusal to provide vaccines to poor countries, it seems instead that he’s more concerned about the geopolitical ramifications.

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