Prognosis
China Is Helping a European Ally Get Ahead on Vaccines
Serbia is leveraging its relationship with the east to inoculate more people than anywhere else in continental Europe.
A health care worker carries boxes of the Sinopharm Group Co Ltd. Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in the Belgrade Fair exhibition center, on Jan. 19.
Photographer: Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg
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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic puts his country’s status as continental Europe’s frontrunner in getting vaccines into people down to one thing: looking east as well as west.
The Balkan country may look like an unlikely success story as the neighboring European Union gets mired in a fiasco over vaccinations. Yet Serbia’s history of balancing its geopolitical interests is paying off at a critical time.