Global Developments and Analysis: Weekly Monitor, 08 March - 14 March 2021

Economic

Will Biden's COVID relief plan cause inflation?

US President Joe Biden on March 11 signed into law a $1.9 trillion (€1.6 trillion) coronavirus relief package bill, following its approval by Congress. "I agree that too much is better than too little and we should aim for some overheating. The question is how much," economist and former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund Olivier Blanchard wrote on Twitter in February, responding to the proposed bill. "Much too much is both possible and harmful. I think this package is too much." "This would not be overheating; it would be starting a fire," he wrote. Over the last decade, the rate of inflation in the US has only occasionally gone above the Federal Reserve's target of 2%. "There's a real possibility that within the year, we're going to be dealing with the most serious incipient inflation problem that we have faced in the last 40 years," former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told Bloomberg News in February. Unbridled inflation is bad enough on its own terms. But it's also self-perpetuating. The faster people try to spend their depreciating money, the quicker it will lose value. If this were to happen in the US, the Fed would have to step in and consciously inflict pain on the economy.
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EU plans millions of e-vehicle batteries, jobs by 2025

EU officials announced plans March 12 to create millions of new jobs as industries across the continent increase capacity to supply lithium-ion batteries needed for electric vehicle production. The 27-member bloc is depending on its European Battery Alliance to decrease reliance on batteries and other technologies imported from the US or Asia as it fulfills the Green Deal goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Planned giga-factories across Europe will produce between 7 million to 8 million batteries annually, more than manufacturing plans for electric vehicles. The EU is "now set to become the second-largest battery cell producer in the world, behind China," said Sefcovic. Sefcovic made the announcement after talks about the battery alliance with German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier and French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. Brussels sees the transformation of Europe's auto industry as a key driver of the continent's post-coronavirus recovery. The bloc is currently investing €20 billion ($24 billion) in 70 projects within 12 member states to ensure battery independence. This includes the securing of supplies of key raw materials such as lithium, nickel and graphite.
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US designates Huawei, four other Chinese tech firms national security threats

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 12 designated five Chinese tech firms as posing an "unacceptable risk" to national security. The companies include Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, along with ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Dahua Technology. "This list is a big step toward renewing trust in our communications networks," FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. "This list provides meaningful guidance that will ensure that as next-generation networks are built across the country, they do not repeat the mistakes of the past or use equipment or services that will pose a threat to US national security or the security and safety of Americans," she added. The move by the FCC comes one day after the Biden administration imposed new 5G license restrictions on some suppliers to Huawei. The US government believes Huawei 5G equipment could be used by Beijing to spy on US residents, with former-President Donald Trump's administration implementing a blacklist on Huawei doing business with US firms in May 2019.
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Children should be ‘at the heart of recovery efforts’

Closed schools, surging poverty, forced marriages and depression - after a year of the pandemic, indicators measuring child and adolescent development have all regressed, a setback that heralds lasting stigma for an entire generation, UNICEF warned on March 11. "The number of children who are hungry, isolated, abused, anxious, living in poverty and forced into marriage has increased," Henrietta Fore, executive director of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, said in a statement released exactly one year since the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic. "Their access to education, socialization and essential services including health, nutrition and protection has decreased. The signs that children will bear the scars of the pandemic for years to come are unmistakable," Fore said in the statement. Faced with such "devastating" effects, Fore urged for children to be placed "at the heart of recovery efforts," particularly by "prioritizing schools in reopening plans.”For 168 million students around the world, schools have been closed for nearly a year. A third of those students do not have access to online education.
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Tariffs and trade war to be ‘definitely’ covered in China-US high-level dialogue

Trade issues, particularly the lingering tariffs war, will "definitely" be on the agenda for the first China-US high-level official dialogue since Joe Biden took over the White House - but any concrete outcome is unlikely as the focus will likely be on political and security issues, Chinese trade experts said on March 14. Also dimming the prospect for any meaningful discussions on the bruising trade war waged by Biden's predecessor Donald Trump were signals from Washington that US punitive duties and the phase one trade agreement would not be a "major topic" for the dialogue later this week. Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Part of China's Central Committee, and Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi are scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18-19. The dialogue between China and the US is not only a political dialogue but will also include economic relations," Li Yong, deputy chairman of the Expert Committee of the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times on March 14.
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China and US chip industries come together to discuss trade

Two major semiconductor industry associations in China and the U.S. have established a working group to discuss trade-related issues, the Chinese group said March 11, a possible olive branch amid trade tensions between Beijing and Washington and a worsening global chip shortage affecting both economies. Chinese Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) and its U.S. counterpart, Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), will meet twice a year to discuss the latest technology development and trade policies in the two countries. The associations will select 10 companies from each side as representatives to participate in the working group, CSIA said. The working group plans to discuss trade policy issues relating to intellectual property protection, encryption regulation, export control, supply chain security among other topics. The private-sector initiative to improve communication is a rare sign of cooperation at a time when both countries have made moves to bolster chipmaking industries at home as the shortage is causing production headaches for companies across different sectors worldwide.
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Virus challenge helps Belt and Road evolution

Authors of the report Health Silk Road 2020, a Bridge to the Future of the Health for All, and experts agreed that China has and will continue to play a vital role in the global medical supply chain in fighting against COVID-19 and the global economic revival in post pandemic era during the virtual launch ceremony of the report on March 12. As a joint work by China Investment Research (CIR) and Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), this report represents a story of how unexpectedly and quickly, but with considerable focus, China controlled a Covid-19virus and then proactively used its firepower to re-launch the Health Silk Road (HSR), the health sector under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Authors Henry Tillman, Ye Yu and Yang Jian pointed out that the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis at the end of 2019 has led to a surprise acceleration and expansion of the HSR and a boom in studies of this topic by global financial press, think tanks and universities.
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China to cross high-income economy threshold by 2025: prominent economist

China is expected to step into the ranks of high-income economies during the 14th Five-Year Plan 2021-25 period, said Lin Yifu, a standing committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, dean and professor at the Institute of New Structural Economics of Peking University predicted on March 9. "This will be an important milestone in the history of human economy," he said in an interview during the two sessions. Lin said that the optimistic prognoses is based on China's complete industrial chain, rich industrial range, and advantages in new technologies including 5G and artificial intelligence. A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with a gross national income per capita of $12,536 or more in 2019. By 2020, China's GDP has exceeded 100 trillion yuan ($15.37 trillion), with the per capita GDP exceeding $10,000 for two consecutive years. Lin pointed out that there are still some problems to be solved at the same time of economic development such as income gap, urban-rural gap, environmental pollution and aging population.
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Saudi Arabia’s Bold Plan to Rule the $700 Billion Hydrogen Market

Saudi Arabia is setting its sights on becoming the world’s largest supplier of hydrogen — a market that Bloomberg NEF estimates could be worth as much as $700 billion by 2050. As governments and industries seek less-polluting alternatives to hydrocarbons, the world’s biggest crude exporter doesn’t want to cede the burgeoning hydrogen business to China, Europe or Australia and lose a potentially massive source of income. So it’s building a $500 billion plant powered entirely by sun and wind that will be among the world’s biggest green hydrogen makers when it opens in the planned megacity of Neom in 2025. Hydrogen is expensive to make without expelling greenhouse gases, difficult to store and highly combustible. The current cost of producing a kilogram is a little under $5, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Saudi Arabia possesses a competitive advantage in its perpetual sunshine and wind, and vast tracts of unused land. Helios’s costs likely will be among the lowest globally and could reach $1.50 per kilogram by 2030, according to BNEF. That’s cheaper than some hydrogen made from non-renewable sources today.
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Tencent Loses $62 Billion, Wiping Out Value of Fintech Business

Tencent Holdings Ltd. shares fell a second day on concern regulators are now turning their sights to Pony Ma’s business empire, fuelling a $62 billion wipe-out that one brokerage says obliterated most of the value of its online finance business. The internet giant’s payments and fintech business is worth between $105 billion to $120 billion, according to estimates by Bernstein analysts including Robin Zhu, who assigned a multiple of up to 8 times to the division’s trailing 12-month revenue of 100 billion yuan ($15 billion). That would imply the payments business is worth about $70 billion to $80 billion, with credit, wealth management and insurance accounting for the remaining $35 billion to $40 billion. “All else equal, we think it could be argued that Tencent’s fintech business is now valued at almost zero,” the Bernstein analysts wrote in a research report, citing March 12’s loss. Tencent’s regulatory woes goes beyond its fintech business. The antitrust regulator on March 12 fined the company, along with some of China’s other tech behemoths, for not seeking prior approval for earlier investments and acquisitions.
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Strategic

A new dawn: Quad leaders vow to define the Indo-Pacific century

The leaders of the U.S., Japan, India and Australia met virtually March 12 in the first-ever summit for the Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad. U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed a broad range of issues beyond security, including climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and future tech standards. A senior U.S. administration official told reporters March 11 that Biden had worked hard to bring the leaders together, his first multilateral summit to host as president, to make a clear statement of the Indo-Pacific region's importance. In a joint statement titled "The Spirit of the Quad" released after Friday's meeting -- the first ever for the Quad -- the leaders pledged to "strengthen our cooperation on the defining challenges of our time" but did not directly mention China. The closest they came was speaking of "challenges to the rules-based maritime order in the East and South China Seas." They agreed to hold an in-person summit by the end of 2021.
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China looms over Blinken and Austin's Asia tour starting in Japan

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were set to arrive in Japan on March 15 to kick off their Asia tour, including South Korea. The two will meet with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi on March 16. Japan will be the first foreign visit for Blinken and Austin since they took the posts. Previously, Japan sent ministers and the U.S. sent its ambassador and commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, but in the 1990s, the U.S. started sending the secretaries of state and defense to the meeting. The allies are expected to announce opposition to Beijing's new law that positions the China Coast Guard as a quasi-military organization and allows it to fire at foreign ships. In the joint statements issued at the two-plus-two meetings in 2015, 2017 and 2019, the two countries expressed concerns over North Korea's nuclear missile programmes but did not single out China. This time, the focus of the discussion will be on China as well as on North Korea, including how to react to China's repeated incursions into Japan's territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and missile defense.
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China alters vice premier selection, paving way for Xi loyalists

The National People's Congress is expected to pass legislation that will allow a more flexible process for naming or dismissing vice premiers, a pool of talent from which the premier is usually picked. Current law requires that the appointment or removal of vice premiers be approved by the National People's Congress, which usually convenes only once a year. The bill would allow for such decisions to be made by the legislature's Standing Committee, which meets every two months. China's constitution limits premiers to two consecutive terms, and Li is set to leave the post in March 2023. Among the four current vice premiers, three are nearing or have already reached the party's unofficial retirement age of 68 for top officials. That leaves only Hu Chunhua, who is aligned with the Communist Youth League -- a powerful political organization and a rival to Xi-- as the only viable choice. Li is also part of this faction. If Xi wants to put a hand-picked candidate of his own in the role, that official will first need a stint as vice premier to gain experience.
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US should rethink Taiwan 'strategic ambiguity': Indo-Pacific chief

Adm. Philip Davidson, the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, testified at a Senate hearing on the command's budget proposal on March 09. When asked by Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, whether it was time for the U.S. to "state clearly that we are not going to allow communist China to invade and subdue Taiwan," Davidson did not shoot it down. "Guam is a target today. It needs to be defended," the four-star admiral said, noting that China's air force has put out a propaganda video showing a bomber force attacking what looks to be Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. Meanwhile on the global force posture review that President Joe Biden has ordered Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to undertake, Davidson said the idea is to have a "more dispersed design and posture in the region" " through a combination of permanently based forward-deployed forces in Japan, South Korea and Guam, plus a rotation of forces based in the contiguous U.S., Alaska and Hawaii. On emerging partnerships, he said that India's active participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with the U.S., Japan and Australia, was an opportunity that Washington should seize.
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Turkey and Egypt make diplomatic contact for first time since 2013

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country has re-established diplomatic contact with Egypt for the first time since the latter’s President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in the 2013 coup. “We have contacts at both the level of intelligence and foreign ministries with Egypt. Diplomatic-level contacts have started,” Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency and TRT in a joint interview late March 11. Cavusoglu said that talks were in an early phase and neither party had brought forward any preconditions. “For this reason, negotiations are taking place and continuing under a certain strategy,” he said. Relations between the two states quickly deteriorated in 2013 after Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is now president, ousted Morsi from office. Turkey was heavily critical of the removal of the supposedly Ankara-backed Morsi, who was also affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Cairo and Ankara have also locked horns over a number of regional issues, including the civil war in Libya, where they backed opposing sides, and maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean and its potentially lucrative gas reserves.
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Moscow promises retaliation if US places previously banned intermediate-range missiles in Japan, within range of Russia’s border

The rumoured deployment of American intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region may trigger a brand new arms race and potential standoff with unpredictable consequences, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Speaking to the press on March 12, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was responding to reports in the Japanese media that Washington and Tokyo are discussing plans to place the American weaponry in Japan. Before August 2019, when then-US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the INF Treaty, these weapons were completely forbidden. “I would like to stress once again that the deployment of American intermediate-range and short-range ground missiles in various regions of the world, including the Asia-Pacific region, in any configuration, would have an extreme destabilizing effect in terms of international and regional security,” she said, noting that it would likely start a brand-new arms race without actually strengthening the security of the US and its allies, and a Russian reaction would “undoubtedly” follow. Last year, at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, a well-respected think tank, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that Moscow would take retaliatory steps against US missile deployments in the Asia-Pacific region.
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North Korea snubs Biden administration’s repeated attempts to get in touch – media

Pyongyang has shunned the Biden administration’s attempts to reach out through various channels since mid-February, US official told the media. The Biden administration, which is currently conducting a review of US policy on North Korea, has reportedly had no luck getting in touch with the country, despite repeated attempts to contact the reclusive state. “The senior Biden administration official”told Reuters on March 13 that Washington sought to contact Pyongyang “through several channels starting in mid-February, including in New York.” “To date, we have not received any response from Pyongyang,” the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, said.The outreach campaign’s failure comes as Washington continues its sabre-rattling at North Korea’s doorstep, though the ongoing US-South Korea military drills are taking place entirely in the virtual domain amid the Covid-19 pandemic.While the scaled-back war games will not feature any outdoor manoeuvers, the “computer-simulated command post exercise” will see the allies rehearsing South Korea retaking operational control of its troops from the US if a war breaks out.
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China’s parliament approves proposal to reform Hong Kong’s electoral system with ‘patriots’ pledge

China’s parliament has voted in favour of “improving the electoral system” in Hong Kong, introducing a requirement that will only allow ‘patriots’ to govern Hong Kong if they pledge loyalty to the country’s Communist Party. The National People’s Congress backed the reforms with 2,895 in favour, no opposition and one abstention, formally passing the draft legislation that had been put forward by the ruling party. The changes proposed in the legislation will see the Communist Party gain greater influence over the legislative body in Hong Kong, raising the number of lawmakers it appoints by increasing election committee members from 300 to 1,500 and legislative council seats from 70 to 90. The changes to the electoral system in Hong Kong will only allow ‘patriots’ to govern the city, requiring them to simultaneously pledge their loyalty to the ruling Communist Party, measures that pro-democracy activists have claimed are designed to suppress opposition in the region. Beijing has defended the new measures as necessary to protect stability in Hong Kong and mainland China, arguing that individuals who aren’t ‘patriots’ might oppose legislation that’s crucial to national security and work with foreign powers.
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Germany: Greens are jubilant while Merkel's CDU suffers defeat

As soon as the first results were published it was clear that the incumbents had been returned to office: Winfried Kretschmann, Green Party Premier of Baden-Württemberg, and Social Democrat Malu Dreyer in Rhineland-Palatinate will remain in office for another five years. The two regional elections are seen as an early test case ahead of the general election in September this year. After 16 years in office Chancellor Angela Merkel is standing down. It is not yet clear who the conservative bloc will choose to put forward as her successor — CDU chairman Armin Laschet or the head of its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) Markus Söder. Whoever it is, the advantage of Merkel's incumbency will not simply transfer to them. The CDU has suffered heavy losses and failed to meet its election targets in both states. In Baden-Württemberg the party has slipped to an all-time low. The poor perception of the CDU-led federal government surely plays a role in this: the chaotic rollout of vaccinations, disputes over school closures, the endless restrictions, the reports from overseas where immunizations are progressing much faster. All this damages the CDU and CSU.
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Dozens killed and Chinese factories torched in Myanmar’s deadliest day

At least 39 people were killed in Myanmar on March 14 and Chinese-financed factories were set ablaze in an industrial zone of Yangon, marking the bloodiest single day since last month’s military coup. The Chinese embassy in Yangon confirmed that the factories had been targeted and Chinese personnel injured. China has not condemned the coup but joined western democracies and Russia in endorsing UN Security Council statements deploring the violence and calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and others arrested since the takeover. Beijing enjoyed good relations with the government of Aung San Suu Kyi that was toppled last month. However, many anti-regime protesters are convinced China supported the coup and have staged frequent protests outside Beijing’s embassy. “China is seen as the target in large part because it is believed to be co-operating with the military,” said Yun Sun, an expert on Myanmar-China relations at the Stimson Center, a think-tank. “As long as China chooses to stay silent and not to oppose the military, this negative view of China among the people will exacerbate.”
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Major arms sales flat in 2016-20 for first time in more than a decade

International deliveries of arms were flat in the period 2016-2020, ending more than a decade of increases, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report on March 15. The United States, France and Germany - three of the world's biggest exporters - increased deliveries but falls in exports from Russian and China offset the rise, SIPRI said. It was the first time since 2001–2005 that the volume of deliveries of major arms between countries - an indicator of demand - did not increase from the previous five year period, SIPRI said. While the pandemic has shut down economies across the world and pushed many countries into deep recessions, SIPRI said it was too early to tell whether the slowdown in arms deliveries was likely to continue. "The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could see some countries reassessing their arms imports in the coming years," Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, said in a statement. "However, at the same time, even at the height of the pandemic in 2020, several countries signed large contracts for major arms."Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest arms importer, increased its arms imports by 61% and Qatar by 361%.
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Kabul confirms attendance for US-proposed talks in Turkey, Moscow

Kabul government delegates will participate in a US-proposed and UN-led conference in Turkey, and a separate meeting in Russia, to expedite the stalled Afghan peace process, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on March 14. “Representatives of the government of Afghanistan will take part in both meetings. Consultations are going on as to who will attend them,” Gran Hewad, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told Arab News. Last week on Tuesday, Kabul said that it was “considering” Russia’s offer to host the talks two days after the leak of a letter from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to President Ashraf Ghani over the impasse. Blinken’s letter had included an urgent proposal to help restart discussions between the Afghan government and the Taliban, which began in Doha, Qatar, in September last year but failed to make any headway. Besides Afghan government emissaries, the March 18 meeting in Russia and the Turkey conference slotted for April will also host delegates from the Afghanistan High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR), factional and influential leaders, and representatives from the US, China and Pakistan. While officials in Ghani’s administration could not confirm who would comprise the Afghan government delegation, the Taliban said that it was “mulling over participation in both conferences.”
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Medical

China rolls out Covid-19 pass for international travel as global debate over a common health passport heats up

Beijing has launched a certificate that verifies Covid-19 status for citizens travelling abroad. The initiative comes amid a raging debate about the global adoption of a health passport. An image of the document shared online shows that it contains passport information as well as Covid-19 test results and vaccination details. The certificate will be available in digital and paper form. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on March 08 that the world economy is in “urgent need of recovery” and suggested that the ID would help facilitate the resumption of international travel. Beijing also signalled that it was open to the idea of adopting a globally recognized document that shows Covid-19 test results and vaccination status. “China is willing to discuss with other countries the establishment of the mutual recognition mechanism” about the virus to “actively promote the construction of healthy, safe and orderly personnel exchanges,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said. Several countries have already eyed similar Covid-19 certificates, both for domestic purposes and international travel. The European Union is planning on introducing a passport, called a “Digital Green Pass,” that would allow vaccinated individuals to travel freely within the bloc.
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More countries suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine

The Netherlands became the latest country to suspend the use of the COVID-19 vaccine, after reports from Denmark and Norway about possible serious side effects. The Dutch government said that it would suspend the use until March 29. The move follows a clash between the police and anti-lockdown protesters in The Hague, a day before a three-day general election. The police arrested 20 people, used water cannon on protesters after they broke COVID-19 lockdown measures. Ireland's health officials recommended suspending the use of the COVID-19 vaccine after reports of blood clotting and lower blood platelet counts in Norway and Denmark. Dr. Ronan Glynn, the country's deputy chief medical officer, said that the suspension was recommended as a precaution as there was no conclusive link between the vaccine and the possible side effects. AstraZeneca said on March 14 that there was no evidence of increased risk of blood clots from its vaccine, after a review of safety data of people vaccinated with its vaccine. Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Iceland have suspended the use of the vaccine, while Austria stopped using a batch of shots last week.
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Japan eyes limit of 2,000 daily arrivals as it opens for Olympics

Japan looks to set a daily limit on the number of people entering the country even as it allows new exceptions to an arrival ban for international travellers, including those involved in the Olympics, Nikkei has learned. A cap of around 2,000 people has been proposed, taking effect sometime after the Tokyo area's coronavirus state of emergency ends, people familiar with the matter say. The number includes Japanese nationals returning to the country. This review of Japan's entry rules comes after the country halted nearly all new arrivals in late December in an attempt to stop a surge in coronavirus infections. The state of emergency in the capital area has been extended to March 21.Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato met March 08 with Tokyo Olympics chief Seiko Hashimoto. "We confirmed that we are going to move ahead steadily with preparations for the games," Kato said afterward. The government plans to expand its exceptions to the entry ban to include athletes and people involved in organizing the Olympic and Paralympic games, scheduled to begin in July. Test events are to start in April.The cap on entries would be managed by adjusting the number of passengers on Japan-bound flights.
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Unthinkable? EU considers getting a vaccine boost from Russia's Sputnik

Publicly, the European Union has dismissed Russia's global coronavirus vaccine supply campaign as a propaganda stunt by an undesirable regime. Behind the scenes, the bloc is turning to Moscow's Sputnik V shot as it tries to get its stuttering efforts to vaccinate its 450 million people back on track, EU diplomatic and official sources told Reuters. An EU official who negotiates with vaccine makers on behalf of the bloc told Reuters that EU governments were considering launching talks with Sputnik V developers and it would take requests from four EU states to start the process. Hungary and Slovakia have already bought the Russian shot, the Czech Republic is interested, and the EU official said Italy was considering using the country's biggest vaccine-producing bioreactor at a Rei Thera plant near Rome to make Sputnik V. The EU has signed deals with six Western vaccine makers and launched talks with two more. It has approved four vaccines so far but production glitches have slowed its inoculation campaign and some member states are seeking their own solutions.
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