In the face of this pandemic, no one is safe until everyone is safe. The world must move quickly to unite as one in the largest-ever global vaccination campaign. Indonesia has chosen China as one of its main partners for vaccine cooperation and has been offering free-of-charge vaccination since the beginning of this year.

By the end of March, more than 5 million Indonesians had received at least one injection of the Sinovac vaccine, following the lead of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. This, as stated by Jokowi, is critical for cutting off the spread of the virus and creating a protective shield for the Indonesian people.

The Chinese vaccines, which are inactivated, are also less demanding in terms of storage and logistics, which is particularly desirable for Indonesia, a tropical, archipelagic country.

China and Indonesia are working closely to turn Indonesia into a regional production hub of vaccines. Bio Farma, Indonesia’s state-owned drug company, has been working with Sinovac since last August on phase three clinical trials. As a matter of fact, since the first batch of Sinovac vaccines arrived in Indonesia on Dec. 6 of last year, tens of millions of Chinese bulk vaccine doses have been turned into ready-to-use ones after fill-and-finish processes rendered locally.

Such cooperation may have the potential to secure a COVID-19-free life for the nearly 700 million people in ASEAN countries.

That said, the picture may not be all that promising in other parts of the world. While vaccines have brought a “light at the end of the tunnel”, concerns about rich countries hoarding vaccines while poor countries having none are also real.

This February, at a UN Security Council open meeting on ensuring equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, UN Secretary General António Guterres said, alarmingly, that just ten countries had administered 75 percent of all COVID-19 vaccines, while more than 130 countries had not received a single dose.

To keep “vaccine nationalism” at bay, the spirit of solidarity is urgently needed. The world must come together to bridge the “vaccine divide”. Countries that have succeeded in vaccine development must offer a helping hand. After all, this is not a race to shape the “global health order” but a race against time to save lives.

What matters most, for all of us, is to get out of this quagmire – the earlier the better.

“We must ensure that no country in need of the vaccines is left behind, and that no individual waiting for vaccination is neglected,” Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a Security Council open meeting in February, calling for stronger cooperation. On China’s part, it has honored its commitment to make COVID-19 vaccines a public good, donating to 69 developing countries in urgent need, exporting vaccines to 43 countries and providing COVAX with an initial 10 million doses for emergency use in developing countries.

“The spirit of cooperation should be emphasized,” President Jokowi once said about vaccine cooperation with China. Humanity may still have a long way to go before fully emerging from the pandemic. That is why every country needs to pitch in.

In the end, it serves our shared interests to build a regional community and indeed, a global community of health for all.

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The writer is a Beijing-based observer of international affairs.

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