Sunday Reflections – Clarence Llewelyn Gomes

Global pandemic and international relations: Balance and outcome

With the world on its knees as it battles the Corona pandemic, a reasonable assumption is that the world would join forces to take on the deadly virus as it continues to jeopardise lives in the millions. While India and its neighbours have shown little support towards one another during these hard times, one would expect Europe, the jewel of human civilization to do better, setting an example for others to follow. A case to illustrate the fallacy of the aforementioned claim is that of Italy, as it openly admits to having lost the battle against the deadly virus. With a population just over 60 million and a fertility rate of a mere 1.34, the future seems grim for the country with no vaccine in sight for the foreseeable future.

Despite Rome pleading for help having been amongst the worst during the initial outbreak, fellow EU countries very conveniently turned a deaf ear to them offering a mere ‘heartfelt apology’ despite recent policy changes to take on cross border crisis. An unlikely ally, Russia came forward providing a good deal of medical supplies, equipment and highly trained personnel. Italy, in response showed their gratitude by replacing the EU flags with the Russian one for a short period of time, provoking harsh responses from numerous political pundits. Though selfless from the surface, many claim that it is a covert operation by Russia to manipulate Italy to use its leverage to lift sanctions from the Kremlin following its illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula back in 2014.

Regardless of Russia’s actual intent, episodes of this sort point to the bigger issues pertaining to the false garb of friendship inherent in the very fabric of contemporary geo-political relations. Even as the world continues to take a heavy toll brought about by the virus, there are many who would prioritise everything but joining hands against Corona.