President Joe Biden (L) will participate in the G7 summit, on his first overseas trip, where he met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R), in Carbis Bay on June 10, 2021 afp_tickers
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–This content was published on June 10, 2021 – 10:55 PM
(AFP)
From climate to pandemic, G7 leaders will seek common responses to global crises at their first summit in nearly two years this Friday, starting with the distribution of 1 billion doses of covid-19 vaccines.
After months of videoconferencing, face-to-face meetings return and until Sunday there will also be bilateral meetings, a reception with Queen Elizabeth II and a barbecue on the beach where there will be no shortage of wood-roasted marshmallows.
The event brings together heads of state and government from Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom in the coastal town of Carbis Bay, in the southwest of England.
It is the first summit as president of the American Joe Biden, who is firmly committed to multilateralism after the isolationist years of Donald Trump. Also for the Italian Mario Draghi and the Japanese Yoshihide Suga.
But the last one for Angela Merkel, who will leave this year the head of the German government that she has held for 16.
However, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G7, will not shake hands with either of them: to avoid contagion, the event is subject to restrictions that include daily tests for covid-19.
Much-needed action as the UK, with nearly 128,000 deaths from coronavirus, faces a surge in the Delta variant that threatens to delay the last phase of its out-of-focus.
– One billion vaccines –
At the center of the talks will be the recovery of a world economy paralyzed by the pandemic and a more equitable distribution of vaccines against covid-19 by rich countries.
Faced with growing calls for solidarity, Johnson urged his counterparts to commit to “vaccinating the world” by the end of next year, “because no one can be well protected until everyone is.”
According to Downing Street, leaders will agree to provide “at least 1 billion doses” by sharing or financing them and increasing production capacity, with the goal of “ending the pandemic by 2022.”
The United States has already pledged to donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to 92 disadvantaged countries. The United Kingdom will distribute 100 million surplus doses, mainly through the Covax program.
But for NGOs it is insufficient and the G7 should approve the suspension of patents to allow mass production. Something accepted by France but which Germany strongly opposes.
“At the current rate of vaccination, it would take 57 years for low-income countries to reach the same level of protection as the G7 countries. This is morally unacceptable, but also counterproductive,” Oxfam stressed.
For his part, Macron called on pharmaceutical companies to donate 10% of the doses sold and hoped that the summit will support the goal that 60% of Africans are vaccinated by the end of March 2022.
According to the Bloomberg agency, the G7 will also request a new investigation from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the origin of the coronavirus.
– Climate “Marshall Plan” –
Fighting the climate crisis will be the other priority of the summit, which promises to be carbon neutral, ahead of the major UN climate conference, COP26, scheduled for November in Scotland.
Johnson aspires to a “Marshall Plan” to help developing countries decarbonize their economies, according to The Times, similar to the massive US funding devoted to rebuilding Europe after World War II.
In May, the G7 environment ministers pledged to end public aid to coal-fired power plants this year, promising “ambitious and accelerated efforts” to reduce their CO2 emissions.
But environmentalists, who are planning to demonstrate around the summit, regret the vague promises.
On the eve of the meeting, Johnson and Biden showed a common front on the climate emergency, approving a new “Atlantic Charter” that also emphasizes the need to deal with cyberattacks.
But if the two great allies are in tune on big international issues like the challenges posed by China or Russia, tensions persist over Northern Ireland, at the center of a post-Brexit dispute between London and the European Union.
Biden, of Irish descent, reiterated his support for the commercial commitments made between the two parties, which he considers a guarantee of peace in the British province.
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