Covid outbreak throws G7 summit into chaos
Indian foreign minister forced to miss face-to-face meeting after two of his delegates test positive
DOMINIC RAAB stood on the stairs of Lancaster House on Tuesday evening and declared: “Diplomacy is back.”
For the first time in more than two years, G7 ministers had spent a day talking with their counterparts face to face. Yet Boris Johnson was forced yesterday to defend the Government’s decision to hold the talks in person after a Covid outbreak threw the summit into chaos.
India’s foreign minister was forced to pull out of physically attending discussions after two members of his delegation tested positive late on Tuesday, just as the Foreign Secretary was hailing the talks as a success.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his team had already met Priti Patel at the Home Office and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, earlier in the week, sparking fears of an outbreak at the summit which was meant to demonstrate that international diplomacy can get back to normal ahead of the full G7 summit in Cornwall next month.
Government sources, however, insisted that the early detection of cases in the Indian delegation, which saw the nation’s entire travelling party enter self-isolation, showed that Covid protocols put in place for the Lancaster House talks were working. None of the Indian party had attended the summit venue itself, sources insisted.
The cases were picked up during daily tests carried out by Public Health England, who later advised that the UK and US representatives did not need to selfisolate because talks with the Indians had been suitably socially distanced.
Mr Jaishankar and his small delegation arrived in the UK on Monday, and were exempted from strict quarantine rules requiring travellers from red list countries to quarantine in a hotel room for 10 days.
The summit took place as planned yesterday, with Mr Jaishankar taking part remotely. He is understood to have received two doses of the vaccine against coronavirus and did not test positive himself.
However, politicians and academics last night questioned why the Indian team had been allowed to enter the UK without being required to quarantine in a hotel, given the country has become “ground zero” for the pandemic in recent weeks.
Sir Keir Starmer suggested the developments cast doubt over the wisdom of hosting physical talks with delegations from 12 other countries, adding: “I do think we need to ask questions.”
Boris Johnson insisted that it was “very important to try to continue as much business as you can as a government” when asked whether the meeting had been a mistake.
India is not a member of the G7 – an alliance of wealthy democracies made up of the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – but is one of four additional nations invited to participate in the talks as a guest.
India’s invitation was thought to partly reflect British foreign policy priorities, as talks accelerate on a postbrexit trade deal.
Covid regulations introduced by the Government last year included a specific clause exempting anyone “travelling to the UK for the purpose of attending or facilitating a G7 event”.
India’s invitation was thought to partly reflect British foreign policy priorities
The number of new Covid cases in India exceeded 300,000 for the 14th day in a row
All of the Indian delegation had tested negative before departing for the UK, it is understood.
Soon after arriving, Mr Jaishankar met Mr Blinken, who later posted a picture of the two sides seated opposite each other at a wide wooden table.
The following morning the Indian foreign minister met the Home Secretary to sign a new Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement.
Later, he met Josep Borrell Fontelles, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, as well as French foreign minister Jean-yves Le Drian, Australia’s foreign minister Marise Payne and Dr Naledi Pandor, the South African foreign minister.
However, on Tuesday evening Mr Jaishankar was informed that two of his team had tested positive for Covid, and later that night joined a dinner remotely rather than in person. Yesterday morning, he tweeted that after becoming aware of “exposure to possible Covid positive cases”, he decided to conduct his engagements virtually “as a measure of abundant caution”.
During the formal sessions the ministers sit round a table separated by clear screens to minimise infection risk, a government source said. Regular testing and cleaning regimes are in place, and one insider joked that there was “hand sanitiser running down the walls”.
Ned Price, US State Department spokesman, said: “The US delegation was advised, including by the UK’S public health professionals, that our masking, social distancing, and daily testing protocols would permit us to continue with our G7 activities as planned.
“We have no reason to believe that any of our delegation is at risk,” he said.
India’s second wave of the pandemic continues to wreak devastation with another record for numbers of daily deaths set yesterday, while the number of new cases exceeded 300,000 for the 14th day in a row.
“This trip should not have taken place despite the evident progress in India-uk bilateral relations and the strategic importance of the G7,” said Avinash Paliwal, a senior lecturer in international relations at SOAS, University of London.
“The pandemic situation in India is too serious for physical proximity between diplomats, leaving aside bypassing quarantine rules.”
Many Indians took to social media yesterday to question the decision by India’s foreign ministry to visit London, arguing that they would not be welcomed by other countries in future and risked being seen as exporters of Covid. There was also confusion about why the UK invited the delegation, particularly when meetings could have been held over Zoom.
A senior UK diplomat said: “We deeply regret that Mr Jaishankar will be unable to attend the meeting today in person and will now attend virtually but this is exactly why we have put in place strict Covid protocols and daily testing.”
The G7 member states issued a stern rebuke to China in their final statement on the outcome of the talks yesterday. The 27-page communiqué contained the group’s strongest condemnation yet of Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang province and what it described as China’s “coercive economic policies”.