“Pandemic Times: China and Russia’s Health Diplomacy in the Balkans” is a new study published by the New Strategy Center, which aims to analyze the soft power actions of China and Russia in the Balkans, which are using the context of the pandemic and the medical domain. In the last two years, health diplomacy has become a consistent tool in the arsenal used by China and Russia to increase their political influence. This study examines how Russia and China use health diplomacy as a foreign policy tool to achieve strategic goals in the Balkans, a region of great strategic interest to these actors, but also to the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance – a region where the great powers’ interests intersect.
The study was coordinated by Dr. Antonia Colibășanu, Senior Associate Expert in New Strategy Center and Senior Geopolitical Analyst of Geopolitical Futures, and it was written by Andrei Pavel, Junior External Relations Expert at New Strategy Center. The analysis aims to provide a better understanding of the impact of these actions on the region by Russia, a traditional actor in the area for the past two centuries, and China, an international player that is increasingly strengthening its economic and political presence in the Balkans.

Pandemic Times: China and Russia’s Health Diplomacy in the Balkans