HEADING IN RIGHT DIRECTION Boris hosts G7: ‘Wi-fi there...’
BORIS Johnson waves hello to his fellow world leaders, including new US President Joe Biden, as he opened the virtual G7 meeting yesterday.
But the Prime Minister had to briefly interrupt his opening statement to ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel to mute her video link, after she was heard talking to an aide.
Host Mr Johnson kicked off the meeting from Downing Street by telling his counterparts there was “no point” in vaccinating the population if less affluent countries are left behind.
He pledged to donate the majority of the UK’s surplus vaccines to poorer countries and encouraged other developed nations to join the effort to increase the global vaccine supply.
Leaders issued a joint statement afterwards agreeing to “intensify co-operation” on the response to Covid-19.
President Biden was seen on camera laughing after the PM accused him of stealing his election campaign slogan “build back better” from him.
Mr Johnson said: “I think he may have nicked it from us but I certainly nicked it from somewhere else – probably some UN disaster relief programme.” He told the leaders: “This is a global pandemic and it’s no use one country being far ahead of another, we’ve got to move together.
“So one of the things I know that colleagues will be wanting to do is to ensure we distribute vaccines at cost around the world – make sure everybody gets the vaccines they need so the whole world can come through this pandemic together.” Earlier, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly accused some countries of using vaccines as “diplomatic leverage” over others.
Asked when the UK would be in a position to share extra vaccines, Mr Cleverly said it is “difficult to say with any kind of certainty”.
He said: “Our first duty is to protect our own people... but we are also a global force for good.”
In their joint statement, the leaders committed to accelerating vaccine development and deployment across the world, and cited £5.3billion of support coming from the G7 for the body behind Covax, a global initiative which is aimed at equitable access to Covid- 19 vaccines.
We’ve got to make sure the world is vaccinated
PM BORIS JOHNSON ON GLOBAL RESPONSE