G7 leaders will adopt a “historic” declaration to prevent future pandemics this Saturday, the second day of a summit that seeks to counter China’s international influence but was overshadowed by perennial European disagreement over Brexit.
After their reunion on Friday after almost two years without meeting, with photos on the beach and a reception with Queen Elizabeth II, the work schedule intensified. And it got hot.
Despite the unity that host Boris Johnson wanted to show, Brexit, and its complicated consequences in the British region of Northern Ireland, fell like a jug of cold water on the summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged the British Prime Minister to implement the commitments signed with the European Union, referring to the “Northern Irish protocol” aimed at preserving the fragile peace established by the Good Friday agreement.
It put an end in 1998 to three decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland between Catholic Republicans and Protestant Unionists.
“The Good Friday agreement and peace on the island of Ireland are essential. We are negotiating a protocol to preserve them, signed and ratified by the United Kingdom and the European Union” and “both parties must implement what was agreed,” insisted the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
Johnson called on Europeans to show “pragmatism and concessions” about the implementation of these special provisions which, by hindering trade between that region and the rest of the UK, cause tension among unionists.
And he warned that if the Europeans do not show flexibility “he will not hesitate” to suspend its application, which would be tantamount to violating an international agreement causing a new crisis.
– Avoid another health disaster –
The leaders of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom were joined by their counterparts from South Korea, South Africa and Australia, and the UN Secretary General, António Guterres.
London, which chairs the club this year, also invited India, in a clear attempt to counteract China’s influence in Asia and Africa, but its prime minister, Narendra Modi, did not travel to the United Kingdom due to the serious health situation in his country .
On the health front, after promising to donate one billion covid-19 vaccines to other countries, leaders want to find a way to avoid new crises.
The G7 will sign the “Carbis Bay Declaration”, described by Johnson as a “historic moment.”
“The world’s leading democracies will commit to prevent a global pandemic from occurring again, so that the devastation caused by Covid-19 is not repeated,” he tweeted.
Among its commitments, reducing the time to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnoses, in the hope of being ready in less than 100 days to face a sudden illness.
Also strengthen health surveillance and reform the World Health Organization (WHO) to make it stronger.
However, the statement does not comment on the thorny proposal to suspend vaccine patents to speed up production, supported by the United States and France but rejected by Germany.
In the opinion of the NGO Oxfam, “this statement does not solve the fundamental problems that prevent vaccines from being accessible to the majority of humanity,” he denounced.
– Counter Chinese influence –
The second day of an appointment that will end on Sunday also has a markedly diplomatic tone, with a defense of multilateralism and special attention to China and Russia.
The leaders intend to assert their “values” as liberal democracies, according to Merkel.
However, the White House assured that it does not want to focus on Beijing.
“It is not about pushing countries to choose between the United States and China. It is about offering another vision and another approach,” said a senior US official.
The United States thus announced the launch by the G7 of a new infrastructure initiative that will invest hundreds of billions of dollars in “low and middle income countries”, seeking to counter the Chinese initiative called “new silk routes”, which consists of in major works designed to strengthen its international influence.
Although “the different G7 partners will have different geographic orientations,” the project “will have a global reach, from Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa and the Indo-Pacific,” the White House said.
The leaders will end the day in a more cordial atmosphere, sharing a sunset barbecue on the beach in Carbis Bay, the South West England seaside town where the summit is celebrated, with marshmallows roasted over a wood fire.
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