CHINA TAKES A DIG AT U.S. ROLE IN SUMMIT, CALLS IT ‘SMALL CIRCLE’ DIPLOMACY

WASHINGTON/CARBIS BAY: A top Chinese diplomat on Friday condemned Washington’s “small circle” diplomacy, state media reported, in a phone call with US secretary of state Antony Blinken as G7 leaders met for their first in-person summit in nearly two years.

Yang Jiechi, the Chinese communist party’s chief diplomat, told Blinken that “genuine multilateralism is not pseudo-multilateralism based on the interests of small circles”.

“The only genuine multilateralism is that founded on the principles of the charter of the United Nations and international law,” Yang told Blinken, in their first one-on-one talks since acrimonious China-us discussions in Anchorage in March.

The phone call came as the leaders of the G7 group met with the challenge posed by China on the agenda.

The US administration of President Joe Biden has maintained a firm line against China, and hopes to rally allies to counter Beijing on trade, technology and human rights - particularly in the restive region of Xinjiang, where Washington has accused China of genocide.

Yang on Friday hit back against those claims, urging the US to “resolve its own grave human rights violations and not use so-called human rights issues as a pretext to arbitrarily interfere in the internal affairs of other countries”.

In Carbis Bay, reporters asked Biden what his message was for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whom Biden is scheduled to meet with next week. Biden replied, “I’ll tell you after I’ve delivered it.”

Earlier, G7 leaders posed for a group photo. As they walked away, led by Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron threw his arm around Biden’s shoulder and began an animated discussion. Macron’s office later said the French leader and Biden discussed China, agreeing there should be no confrontation but Western democracies must defend their interests.