Facetoface G7 summit — 1st in 2 years

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy industrialized nations gathered Tuesday in London for their first facetoface meeting in more than two years, with the issue of whether to challenge or coax a surging China high on the agenda.

Host nation Britain is keen to show that the rich countries’ club still has clout in a fastchanging world, and has warned that the increasingly aggressive stances of Russia, China and Iran pose a challenge to democratic societies and the international rule of law.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the United States’ reembrace of its international allies since President Biden replaced Donald Trump.

Top diplomats from the U.K., the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are holding two days of talks with an agenda that includes the coup in Myanmar, the Tigray crisis in Ethiopia and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops and their NATO allies are winding down a twodecade deployment.

Eric Feferberg / AFP via Getty Images 2016 Egypt has agreed to buy 30 more French Rafale fighter jets, seen here on a French aircraft carrier in 2016. Egypt has now built up its fleet of the advanced warplane to 54, second only to the French air force.