India’s stakes in the Global Pandemic Agreement

Why in the News

The World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement (PA) promises poorer countries a fair share of vaccines in the next pandemic, but it cannot be ratified until the system to deliver that share is agreed. At the United Nations High Level Meeting (UN HLM), India backed the Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) on the basis of national sovereignty.

What is the Pandemic Agreement, and why can it not be ratified yet?

1. What it is: The PA is a WHO agreement fixing in advance what countries owe one another in a pandemic, like a fire code. It anchors an emerging global legal regime on pandemics.
2. Adoption: 124 WHO member states, India among them, adopted the PA last year, with none against and 11 abstaining.
3. Missing annex: The PA is not yet open for ratification, because talks continue on its Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex.
4. What PABS does: Countries sharing samples of a dangerous pathogen get a share of the resulting vaccines and medicines, so low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs) are not left out.
5. The takeaway: Even unratified, this first-of-its-kind regime will decide whether the inequities of COVID-19 repeat.

What is One Health?

1. Meaning: One Health manages the health of people, animals and ecosystems as one connected system.
2. Pandemic link: The human-animal-environment interface is a key source of pandemic outbreaks, so joint surveillance catches disease jumping between species, called “spillover”, early.

Where do the Global North and the Global South disagree?

1. Sovereignty versus solidarity: North and South split over balancing national sovereignty, each country’s control of its health policy, against international solidarity.
2. Unfunded One Health targets: African countries refused binding One Health duties to monitor the human-animal-environment interface without significant funding for fragile health systems.
3. Harmonising national rules: Whether global frameworks should align national pandemic regulations stayed contested.
4. Real-time vaccine sharing: Whether private manufacturers must share vaccines in real time at affordable prices stayed open.
5. Technology transfer: Global North countries refused binding targets on technology transfer, sharing know-how to make vaccines and medicines.

What did India argue at the UN High Level Meeting?

1. Two tests of coordination: India said coordination must be shown through:
   • equitable access to drugs, vaccines and therapeutics, plus global public goods, resources open to all, such as digital infrastructure;
   • respect for the primacy of member states in shaping policy to national circumstance.
2. Bridge between blocs: India acknowledged both sides’ concerns, insisting “Global Solidarity must be demonstrated through action”.
3. United States rejection: The United States rejected the Declaration, calling PABS and the WHO’s power to declare pandemics a challenge to its national interests.

Why must India lead the Global South, and what are its three options?

1. Stake in equity: India, the “pharmacy of the world”, is among the largest vaccine makers by volume yet depends on others:
   • global firms hold the patents on vaccines India makes;
   • it imports Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), the chemicals that make a medicine work.
2. Technical partnerships: Joint work on One Health, surveillance and health workforce can build Global South trust and practical compromises on sovereignty.
3. Existing groupings: India can use three platforms:
   • the H20 summit, a G-7 and G-20 health partnership, under the UK’s G-20 leadership in late 2027;
   • the Global Initiative for Digital Health, launched in India’s 2023 G-20 presidency;
   • the European Union’s ‘Partners for Multilateralism’, co-sponsored by India.
4. Domestic alignment: India’s rules on access to biological material and benefit sharing must meet the equity standards it demands abroad.
5. Global public goods: India offered its digital health infrastructure, laboratory networks and One Health work as global public goods for South-South Cooperation among developing countries.

Challenges

1. Unfunded obligations: Binding duties without assured money burden the weakest systems most.
2. Sovereignty dilution: When both blocs treat sovereignty as paramount, common rules shrink to voluntary pledges.
3. A major power outside: A regime the United States rejects loses reach over the firms and funds based there.

Way Forward

1. Conclude the PABS annex: Member states should finalise PABS with enforceable benefit-sharing terms, so the PA opens for ratification.
2. Funded monitoring: Pair binding surveillance duties with guaranteed financing for fragile health systems.
3. Licensing for supply: India should seek voluntary licences from patent holders, so Indian plants can supply the Global South in a pandemic.

Conclusion

The Pandemic Agreement now stands or falls on settling benefit sharing and funding on terms the Global South accepts. Whether the PABS annex closes on that balance, with India shaping it, is the test.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2026] Which of the following international conventions have NOT been ratified by India? 1. Employment Policy Convention 2. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention 3. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families 4. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War 5. Convention on Reduction of Statelessness (a) 2 and 4 (b) 1 and 2 (c) 3 and 4 only (d) 3, 4 and 5 ANSWER:”