Joe Biden, for whom the summit is the beginning of his first foreign trip as US president, described the European Union as a strong organization in today’s talks.
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At President Biden’s initiative, leaders today agreed on an extremely costly plan to support the infrastructure development of poor countries. Reuters reported that the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative is an effort to curb China’s growing influence and competition from the new Silk Road, announced eight years ago by Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, no further details are known regarding the operation of the intended plan and its financing. In addition, the G7 wants to donate a billion doses of anti-cancer vaccines to poorer countries to help stop the spread of the disease.
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According to Reuters, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for a unified approach to the challenges posed by China. The meeting spoke about the influx of Chinese cheap and often dumping goods, the need to build stable supply chains that would ensure mutual support for democratic countries, as well as human rights violations by Beijing.
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At the summit, the United States wants to persuade other G7 members to adopt a specific position on forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province, where a minority of Muslim Uighurs live. However, according to the AP agency, there is no agreement on this statement yet.
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US President Biden, who, following his predecessor Donald Trump, has been rebuilding traditional American alliances around the world since taking office, described the European Union as a “strong and vibrant organization” in an interview with French President Emmanuel Macron. Thanks to these characteristics, according to him, it is able to respond to economic challenges and is a support for NATO. A summit of the North Atlantic Alliance awaits the head of the White House in Brussels on Monday, and a day later Biden will hold talks with the heads of EU institutions. In return, in a clear allusion to Trump, Macron praised the current direction of the United States and praised Biden’s willingness to cooperate.
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Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of the summit today called on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to abide by the Brexit agreement he had signed with the EU. To the Union’s displeasure, London has unilaterally postponed promised checks on goods on the route between the rest of Britain and Northern Ireland because, according to the Johnson government, they disrupt the daily movement of goods.
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Johnson responded to EU officials’ allegations in an interview with Sky News, saying Britain would do “anything” to protect its territorial integrity in a trade dispute with the EU. The British Prime Minister also warned that, if necessary, Britain would not hesitate to apply one of the articles of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which allows for unilateral safeguard measures in the event of unexpected negative effects of maintaining the single market.
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