Macron urges West to give Africa 13m vaccine doses

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called on Western nations to supply 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to African governments “as soon as possible”.

“The African continent has 6.5 million health workers. It requires 13 million doses to protect them and allow their health systems to withstand” the coronavirus crisis, he told the Munich Security Conference by video from Paris.

He said this would represent just 0.43 percent of the West’s vaccine stocks, but be a boon to African countries struggling to protect their citizens.

“If we, Europeans and Americans, can deliver these 13 million doses as soon as possible, it’s hugely worth it, and it’s worth it for our credibility,” Macron said.

He warned that if rich countries promise doses that do not arrive for another six to 12 months, “our African friends will be pressured by their populations, and rightly so, to buy doses from the Chinese, the Russians or directly from laboratories.”

“And the power of the West, of Europeans and Americans, will be only a concept, and not a reality,” he said.

The vaccine donations, he added, would also be tangible proof of a trans-atlantic push to foster a “useful” globalisation reflecting “a common will to advance and share the same values.”

“If we want our globalisation to succeed... we must address the problem of inequalities in our societies, with our neighbours,” Macron said.

His call came ater France and other G7 nations pledged to put up $7.5 billion to roll out Covid vaccines in the poorest countries.

Macron had already proposed that rich Western countries transfer three to five percent of their stock of Covid-19 vaccines to Africa, in an interview with The Financial Times published Thursday.

Macron said on Friday his concept of “European strategic autonomy” in the defence sector did not mean he wanted to drit apart from the United States but that it would make Europe a more reliable partner and strengthen NATO.

“I do believe in NATO,” Macron said during the

Munich Security Conference, more than a year ater causing confusion among other members of the transatlantic military alliance by saying NATO was “experiencing brain death”.

“I do believe NATO needs a new political momentum and clarification of its strategic concept. NATO needs a more political approach,” he added, speaking ater the first G7 meeting atended by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Since his election in 2017, Macron has been pushing for the European Union to stand on its own feet when it comes to security, and no longer rely solely on US military protection inherited from World War Two.