G7 SEEKS COMMON FRONT ON CHINA IN FIRST TALKS SINCE PANDEMIC
LONDON: The Group of Seven wealthy democracies on Tuesday discussed how to form a common front towards an increasingly assertive China in the foreign ministers’ first in-person talks in two years.
Backing US President Joe Biden’s calls for a deeper alliance of democracies, host Britain invited guests including India, South Korea and Australia for talks in central London stretched out over three days.
After a welcome dinner Monday focused on the nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea, the foreign ministers opened formal talks at Lancaster House, a West End mansion, welcoming one another with Covid-friendly elbow-bumps and minimal staff.
The G7 devoted its first session Tuesday to China, whose growing military and economic clout, and willingness to exert its influence at home and abroad have increasingly unnerved Western democracies.
G7 foreign ministers meet in London for their first face-to-face talks in more than two years on Tuesday, with calls for urgent joined-up action to tackle the most pressing global threats. China, Myanmar, Libya, Syria and Russia are all on the formal agenda as the ministers from the club of wealthy democracies prepare for a leaders’ meeting in Cornwall, southwest England, next month.
They will also discuss violence in Ethiopia, Iran and North Korea, Somalia, the Sahel and western Balkans, as part of what London said were “pressing geopolitical issues that threaten to undermine democracy, freedoms and human rights”.
Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab met his US counterpart secretary of state Antony Blinken on Monday with both pushing a firm line on the need for a more unified approach.
“The UK’s presidency of the G7 is an opportunity to bring together open, democratic societies and demonstrate unity at a time when it is much needed to tackle shared challenges and rising threats,” Raab said in a statement.
Blinken hammered home the need for a common stance, as he reaffirmed US commitment to the “international rules-based order” to tackle issues from climate change to post-pandemic recovery.
Ministers are meeting under strict coronavirus protocols, with stripped-back delegations and social distancing, including face masks and perspex screens between speakers.
Britain, which has seen more than 127,500 Covid-related deaths in the outbreak, is gradually easing virus restrictions as vaccinations increase and cases fall, even as other countries such as India and Brazil endure fresh spikes.
That has prompted calls for more concerted international action, including widespread access to vaccines.
Blinken told a joint news conference with Raab on Monday evening, “Most of the challenges that we face... not a single one of those challenges can be effectively met by any one country acting alone -- even the United States, even the United Kingdom.
“There is I think a stronger imperative than at any time since I’ve been involved in these issues to find ways for countries to cooperate, to coordinate, to collaborate.”
Ministers from the G7 - Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- will also meet counterparts from the European Union, as well as delegates from India, Australia, South Africa, South Korea and Asean chair Brunei.
Raab said their attendance was proof of “the increasing demand and need for agile clusters of like-minded countries that share the same values and want to protect the multilateral system”.