G7: Pact on pandemics, pledge to contain China
World leaders unveil plan at G7 summit to counter China, chalk out historic deal to tackle future diseases with more swiftness
CARBIS BAY, UK: The G7 on Saturday unveiled Us-led plans to counter China in infrastructure funding for poorer nations, and a new accord to prevent future pandemics, as the elite group sought to showcase Western unity at its first in-person summit since 2019.
Promising to “collectively catalyse” hundreds of billions of infrastructure investment for low and middle-income countries, the G7 leaders said they would offer a “values-driven, high-standard and transparent” partnership.
Their “Build Back Better World” (B3W) project is aimed squarely at competing with China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative”. The White House said US President Joe Biden and fellow leaders addressed “strategic competition” with Beijing on the second day of their three-day summit in Carbis Bay.
Britain, meanwhile, hailed G7 agreement on the “Carbis Bay Declaration” - a series of commitments to curb future pandemics after Covid-19 wrecked economies and claimed millions of lives around the world. The steps include slashing the time taken to develop and license vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for future disease to under 100 days.
The G7 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US - will publish the pact on Sunday, alongside its final communique containing further details on the B3W.
“The #Carbisbaydeclaration marks a proud and historic moment for us all,” British PM Boris Johnson tweeted. “The world’s leading democracies will commit to preventing a pandemic from happening again, ensuring the devastation caused by Covid-19 is never repeated.”
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the health pact, saying the UN agency will examine a British proposal to create a “Global Pandemic Radar” to send early warnings of future outbreaks.
Boris warns EU over post-brexit trade
Britain will do “whatever it takes” to protect its territorial integrity in a trade dispute with the EU, Johnson said, threatening emergency measures if no solution was found. The threat seemed to break a temporary truce in a war of words over part of the Brexit deal that covers border issues with Northern Ireland, the focus for tensions since Britain left the EU last year.