VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The foreign policy that is being carried out by Indonesia means that this country has no difficulty in establishing communication and negotiating the COVID-19 vaccine with various countries, according to officials from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The head of the COVID-19 Task Force at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Daniel Tumpal, said that so far Indonesia could freely carry out diplomacy for vaccine procurement in the midst of a number of large countries that were in competition for vaccine development.

"Free and active politics is not a figment, for example, for this vaccine we are now talking to the United States, Britain, China, and others, I don't see any problems. We are very comfortable moving anywhere," said Daniel, in a discussion event at Jakarta, Wednesday.

Indonesia has secured access to the COVID-19 vaccine from several parties, for example, from China and the United Arab Emirates - which was obtained through direct visits by Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and BUMN Minister Erick Thohir in the middle of this year.

"And in the end, our national interest [...] is that we learn about technology transfer through this pandemic," said Daniel, who also serves as the Director of Africa of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The effort to procure the COVID-19 vaccine under the current pandemic situation is one of the three points of refocusing the work priorities of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Indonesian Representatives abroad, especially to help the government manage the outbreak through health diplomacy.

"In the short and long term, three issues - diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccines - will color our diplomacy on health issues," said Daniel.

Diagnostic capabilities, such as procuring PCR tests or rapid tests, have previously been Indonesia's first step in handling pandemics.

And in this case, according to data from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as of November 17, 2020, his party has facilitated 120 international supports worth 135.28 million US dollars (around Rp1.9 trillion).

"In the future, for the long term (health diplomacy), we will target the issue of medicinal raw materials," said Daniel. (Antaranews)