FROM OUR REPORT Falmouth (Cornwall) Never again a pandemic like Covid-19: this is the commitment made in Cornwall by the Big Seven, who yesterday signed the “Carbis Bay Declaration”, from the location where the summit is held. A program that has that as its goal to cut production times for new vaccines to 100 days, to launch a global monitoring system for viruses and variants and to support the strengthening of the World Health Organization.
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All this is accompanied by the promise of donating a billion vaccines to poor countries, of which 500 million made available by the United States and 100 million by Great Britain. «With the Carbis Bay Declaration – underlined Boris Johnson – the major democracies in the world intend to commit themselves to prevent a global pandemic from happening again, to ensure that the devastation caused by Covid-19 is never repeated. And it is something to be proud of ».
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But it is a challenge that will be difficult to tackle without involving China, whose shadow dominated much of the summit. And indeed a western alternative to the Silk Road, to counter the influence of Beijing in the world, it is the project that the American administration has approved at the G7.
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China has invested trillions in large infrastructure programs in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, building ports, railways, highways and so on: but it is an economic penetration that has political hegemony as its ultimate goal. And that’s why Joe Biden wants to counter it, by contrasting it with a global investment plan called “Build back better for the world”, rebuilding better for the world. However, the Americans remained very vague as to how the alternative project will be financed and what the deadlines will be: we only know that by 2035 a gap of 40 trillion should be filled.
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The United States demands that the final G7 communiqué today include a strong criticism of human rights violations in China to the detriment of the Uyghur Muslim minority, in particular as regards the use of forced labor. Already at the beginning of the year, in this regard, the Americans, Europeans, British and Canadians introduced sanctions against senior Chinese officials involved in the repression of the Uighurs: at the G7 however Europeans insist that a “balanced” attitude towards Beijing prevail, which takes into account the need to cooperate with China on major global challenges.
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Yesterday’s summit was also a joust of bilateral meetings, including the one between Mario Draghi and Biden. And participation has also been extended to the leaders of Australia, South Korea and South Africa (plus Indians in remote connection): an extension of the G7 format mainly wanted by the British, which intend to shift its center of gravity towards the Indo-Pacific and make it a sort of “League of Democracies”, but which does not arouse much enthusiasm among Europeans, particularly on the Italian side.
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The common thread of the bilateral were, however the complications of Brexit, namely the question of Northern Ireland. The Europeans ordered Johnson to “tone down”, but he did the opposite: he replied that it will do “whatever is necessary” to preserve the integrity of the United Kingdom, including suspending agreements already signed. After June 30, controls on goods arriving from Great Britain in Northern Ireland should come into full force, made necessary by the fact that the province has remained in the single European market: but London refuses to enforce the agreement. The risk is that Brussels will respond with sanctions, triggering a trade war that would not benefit anyone.
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June 12, 2021 (change June 12, 2021 | 23:35)
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