P.S. Raghavan, retired ambassador and chairman of the National Security Advisory Board, says ‘vaccine diplomacy’ is a wrong formulation. “We should see it as a part of India’s developmental assistance in areas of strategic interest to us.” Raghavan points out that India rolled out its vaccine outreach to nations falling within the ambit of its foreign policy priorities and areas of core interest—the ‘neighbourhood first’ policy, and then the SAGAR (Security and Growth for All) doctrine in the Indian Ocean region, which tallies with the broader Indo-Pacific island states. India has also continued its development outreach to friends in Africa. Inevitably, countries where India sees a possibility of growth are also taken into account while distributing vaccines. Thus, recipient countries like Seychelles, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Maldives are nations with which India is hoping to shore up maritime security, while Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, which hosts China’s first overseas military base, has also received the vaccine. “India is using its strength to promote its core interests, as every country does,” says Raghavan. Indeed, India sent out 50,000 doses of Covishield to Seychelles immediately after the Indian Ocean nation got an equal number of China’s Sinopharma shots.