Africa in spotlight at G7 meeting
TAORMINA, Italy: Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations met African heads of state yesterday, the final day of their annual summit, which has been marked by discord over climate change but unity on tackling terrorism.
Italy had hoped to make Africa the focus of the annual G7 gathering, holding the discussions on the island of Sicily, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past four years as they flee war and poverty at home.
However, the two-day meeting was overshadowed by the suicide bombing in northern England on Monday that killed 22 people and got bogged down by lengthy discussions on the merit of free trade and the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.
President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to honour a US commitment to greenhouse gas emissions and has pushed back against international trade accords he says have hurt American economic interests.
“We are having to talk about things settled years ago,” said a top member of a G7 delegation, frustrated by the US position.
Diplomats from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US worked late into the night to agree on the final communique.
A French presidential source said substantial progress had been made on the question of trade, particularly in the area of multilateralism.
Italy had hoped to emphasise the positive impact migration can have and to call on industrialised nations to open up more legal channels for immigration to try to slow the flow of people risking their lives to reach Europe. That idea was shot down. “There was very strong opposition by the Americans and British who wanted to refocus on security and water down the expansive language on freedom of movement,” said a European diploma.
Security questions dominated initial G7 discussion on Friday and the leaders issued a statement telling internet service providers and social media firms to “substantially increase” their efforts to rein in extremist content.
The leaders of Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria joined the talks yesterday, along with the heads of the AU and UN, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“Perhaps the choice (to be in) Taormina and Sicily says much about how important our relations are with Africa,” Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in his opening remarks.
“Our discussion on Africa will focus on the need for a partnership across all sectors… with innovation and development our core objective,” he said.
US officials said Trump had enjoyed “robust” conversations with his allies in Sicily and had also learnt a lot, especially in the debate on climate change, which he has previously dismissed as a hoax.
“He came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving, which exactly as they should be,” Trump’s economic adviser Gary Cohn said. – Reuters