Afternoon summary
- Campaigners have accused G7 leaders of failing to do enough to protect people in poorer nations from Covid after Boris Johnson’s summit target for a donation of one billion extra vaccine donations was only met by means of an accounting ploy. (See 4.52pm.) Oxfam said the summit would “live on in infamy”. (See 4.39am.) Gordon Brown, the Labour former prime minister and a leading figure in the campaign to properly vaccinate the developing world, said the summit would be remembered as “an unforgivable moral failure”. (See 9.54am.) And Kirsty McNeill, a spokesperson for Crack the Crises, a coalition of 75 charities pushing ahead of the summit for action on Covid, the climate, injustice and the nature crisis, said:
Leaders at this summit have failed to deliver either the vaccine doses and investment needed to end the Covid pandemic or the real action it will take to stem the tide of climate change. This is an historic missed opportunity that leaves people everywhere dangerously exposed to these crises.
- Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has also appealed for “calm” to prevail in the UK-EU row over the Northern Ireland protocol - although he also said that the protocol should be enforced because Johnson signed up to it only a few months ago. (See 4.05pm)
- Johnson has rejected claims that his government’s aid cuts undermined his authority at the G7, saying no leader raised the topic with him at all. (See 2.42pm.)
- Joe Biden, the US president, has said the summit showed that “America is back at the table”. (See 3.06pm.)
That’s all from me for today.
Our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.
Updated
G7 leaders agreed to coordinate their response to the challenges posed by China “much much more closely”, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said after the summit. As Reuters reports, Trudeau said at his news conference:
What we really came together clearly to say and put forward today was a need to speak with one voice [on China], a need to coordinate much more closely our working together and our focus.
Protestors blocked roads in St Ives and marched on the media centre in Falmouth during a third day of activism at the G7 summit.
Supporters of Extinction Rebellion said they were acting because the G7 leaders have not.
NEW: activists blockading the public entry/exit to St Ives as the #G7Summit2021 wraps up @itvnews pic.twitter.com/kb8SlqciOl
— Rupert Evelyn (@rupertevelyn) June 13, 2021
A spokesperson said:
This weekend was a key moment. The G7, leaders of the world’s richest democratic nations, have met and yet we’re still drowning in promises. We asked the leaders of the world to act now and all we’ve had are hollow words. We’re in no better position than before the G7 took place
This G7 conference begs the question: is the outcome of this event really worth all the disruption, the carbon footprint and not forgetting the unfathomably large financial cost of all this security?
On the other side of the peninsula in Falmouth, around 50 members of a coalition groups called Resist G7 took part in a Kill the Bill rally outside the summit media centre.
Kill the Bill demo in Falmouth - about 50 protesting outside the G7 media centre. pic.twitter.com/1v9EGMMbGJ
— steven morris (@stevenmorris20) June 13, 2021
The protesters were campaigning against the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill and also called for better support for the Traveller community, and shouted “Say her name - Sarah Everard” and “Say his name - George Floyd” before speeches were given.
Political activist Femi Oluwole said: “I came because I wanted to support the people who are very, very worried about people’s rights to protest. I had to get up at 4.30am this morning to come down from Birmingham. I think this is a pretty impressive turnout.”
Why Oxfam claims G7 has chosen to 'cook the books on vaccines'
Oxfam has accused the G7 of cooking the books on vaccines. (See 4.39pm.) That is because the summit pledge is not quite what it seems.
This morning Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said the G7 countries were making a commitment for one billion extra doses to go to poorer countries by the middle of next year (see 10.14am) - which was the target set by Boris Johnson.
The summary of the summit communique (pdf) says this has been met. It says:
Total G7 commitments since the start of the pandemic provide for a total of over two billion vaccine doses, with the commitments since we last met in February 2021, including here in Carbis Bay, providing for one billion doses over the next year.
But the full communique (pdf) reveals that the G7 countries are just donating 870m doses of spare vaccine. The other 130m are the “dose equivalent” of separate financial payments. It says:
Recognising the urgent need to speed up delivery of doses, we are committing to share at least 870 million doses directly over the next year. We will make these doses available as soon as possible and aim to deliver at least half by the end of 2021 primarily channelled through Covax towards those in greatest need. Taken together, the dose equivalent of our financial contributions and our direct dose sharing mean that the G7’s commitments since the start of the pandemic provide for a total of over two billion vaccine doses.
Oxfam says G7 summit will 'live on in infamy' because it has failed to meet vaccine and climate challenge
Oxfam has delivered a savage verdict on the outcome of the G7. Max Lawson, the charity’s head of inequality policy, says it will “live on in infamy”. In a news release he explains:
This G7 summit will live on in infamy. Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times. Never in the history of the G7 has there been a bigger gap between their actions and the needs of the world. In the face of these challenges the G7 have chosen to cook the books on vaccines and continue to cook the planet. We don’t need to wait for history to judge this summit a colossal failure, it is plain for all to see.
And this is what he says about the proposal on vaccines.
[G7 leaders] say they want to vaccinate the world by the end of next year, but their actions show they care more about protecting the monopolies and patents of pharmaceutical giants.
A billion vaccine doses donated would have been a drop in the bucket, but they didn’t even manage that. Sharing vaccines will only get us so far - we need all G7 nations to follow the lead of the US, France and over 100 other nations in backing a waiver on intellectual property. By holding vaccine recipes hostage, the virus will continue raging out of control in developing countries and put millions of lives at risk.
Prime Minister Johnson and Chancellor Merkel are insisting on defending the monopolies of pharmaceutical companies over people’s lives, which is completely inexcusable.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, is holding a post-summit press conference. There is a live feed on the G7 website (live stream one).
He said there had been “enormous support” around the world for the proposed waiver of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which could facilitate the production of vaccines around the world by suspending intellectual property rights. This is something that he called for in a speech at the G7 yesterday. (See 11.13am.)
Opposition to the plan had become “much more reasonable”, he said. There was now an agreement to move to text-based negotiations, he said. They were making headway, he said. “I’d like to believe that we’re almost there,” he said.
Macron seeks to defuse row with UK - while saying Johnson knew he was signing up for checks at NI border
At his news conference Emmanuel Macron, the French president, spoke about the row with the UK over the Northern Ireland protocol. Mostly he sought to defuse the row with the UK inflamed by what he said to Boris Johnson yesterday, and the way it has been interpreted. (See 9.03am and 12.31pm.)
But Macron also insisted that the restrictions at the border for goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland that Boris Johnson finds so objectionable (aka the “sausage ban”) were ones that Johnson signed up to only a few months ago.
Macron opened his remarks by saying: “We all need to stay very calm.”
He joked about how much the French loved their own sausages too, and then he said that at the G7 they should not be creating disputes on topics like this when they should be discussing issues like the defence of the democratic model.
He went on:
France has never allowed itself to question British sovereignty, the integrity of British territory and the respect of its sovereignty.
Brexit, I’d like to remind you, is the child of British sovereignty and has generated thousands of hours of work for European leaders. So we know very well what British sovereignty is. I don’t think there’s any other country whose sovereignty other countries have spent so much time respecting. So we are respectful.
Over a number of years after Brexit we established certain rules, a protocol agreement, and also a commercial treaty. We just want them to be respected, seriously, calmly, professionally. That’s all.
And that does not give rise to any other kind of disagreement.
And I realise that when [Boris Johnson became prime minister] he did not want to keep the backstop, which was defended by Theresa May. It was a way of reconciling respect for the integrity of British territory, the Good Friday agreement and also the single market. So Prime Minister Jonson was well aware at the time there was a control issue, and he himself signed the [Northern Ireland protocol] which does envisage controls. Because full respect of sovereignty, including with regard to Northern Ireland, would not respect the single market for the 27 member states.
So the EU should not have to deal with certain incoherences that people were well aware of at the beginning.
I am doing things very calmly. I believe that everybody has come back to reason. My wish is that we succeed collectively putting into operation what we decided upon a few months ago.
We have to do this calmly and with mutual respect. Obviously having disagreements every single morning would not be a good modus operandi.
This transcript is based on what was said by the interpreter featured on the Sky News broadcast (Macron was speaking in French), although at certain points I have tidied up her words, without altering the sense, to make the language sound more natural.
All the G7 documents, including the final communique (pdf) and a summary of the final communique (pdf), are on the G7 website here.
I have updated some of the earlier posts with direct quotes from Boris Johnson’s press conference. To get the updates to appear, you may need to refresh the page.
Q: Why have you kept in place Trump-era sanctions on steel and aluminium?
Biden says he has only been in office for 120 days. “Give me a break,” he says.
And that’s it. The Biden press conference is over.
Q: Sanctions have not changed Russia’s behaviour. So what else can you do?
Biden says there is no guarantee that you can change someone’s behaviour. Autocrats have a lot of power, and do not answer to the public, he says.
But he says Russia “has its own dilemmas”.
He says there are areas where the US can work with Russia. Russia will have problems rebuilding in Syria or Libya, he says.
Q: Putin offers to hand over cybercriminals to the US, if you hand over criminals to Russia. Are you open to that?
Biden says he is open to that, if crimes have been committed against Russia.
Q: The G7 has committed to one billion extra doses. But the WHO says 11 billion doses are needed. Is one billion enough?
Biden says it may be possible to supply another one billion doses, but they are not yet in a position to be able to announce that yet.
Q: Did you want the G7 to be firmer on China?
Biden says the last G7 communique did not mention China. This one does. He says he wanted a democratic alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative. He has got one.
He says the thinks there is “contest of autocrats” taking place. It is up to democracies to show they can compete. He says what happens now will determine whether democracies stay relevant, and whether our grandchildren look back in 15 years’ time and conclude the democratic nations stood up to the challenge.
He says the G7 leaders agreed. He is satisfied with what the summit has concluded on China, he says.
Biden says he agrees with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, who said UK-Russia relations were at a low point.
Before the became president, he said he would look into claims Russia interfered with the US presidential elections. He did, Russia did interfere, and he responded.
He says he wants better relations with Russia. He does not want conflict. He will be straightforward about his concerns when he meets Putin. Afterwards he will set out his view of what happened at the meeting. Putin will set out his view.
'America is back at the table', says Biden
Biden says the G7 leaders also endorsed a global minimum corporation tax.
They want an equitable recovery, he says.
He says the agreement will arrest the “race to the bottom” that has been going on.
He says the G7 has endorsed his idea for the Build Back Better World partnership, or B3W, he says.
He says this will be an alternative to China’s Belt and Road iniative.
He says the G7 also agreed to permanently end subsidies for coal projects.
He says other leaders were pleased to see a US president who believes in climate change.
He says the summit also backed democratic values. He says he told leaders that a president has to represent the people he represents. He says America is a country not based on ethnicity or geography or religion. It is based on an idea, freedom.
He says: “America is back at the table.”
He says he was pleased with the summit. He says people all got on, but they did.
After this he is going to the Nato summit, he says. Referring to Nato, he says he does not view Nato as “a protection racket”. He says it is there for collective security. After 9/11, Nato backed the US, he says.
Updated
Joe Biden's press conference
Sky News is now showing Joe Biden’s press conference.
It has been extraordinarily collaborative, he says.
He says the G7 is about rallying the world’s democracies.
They have committed to do more for the rest of the world on the pandemic. The US contribution is the foundation, he says.
The US will provide 500m doses of Pfizer vaccine, in addition to the Covax initiative (except Biden calls is Covid).
The rest of the G7 offered another 500m doses, he says.
He says 200m doses of the US will be provided by the end of this year.
Macron says the liberal democracy model is at risk. That is because it needs to show that it can tackle the problems facing the world like climate change, he says.
Emmanuel Macron’s press conference
President Macron is holding a press conference now.
Sky News is broadcasting it with a translation, but there is a live feed here too.
EN DIRECT | Conférence de presse du Président @EmmanuelMacron à l’issue du G7 au Royaume-Uni.https://t.co/WFXMQ2AMt5
— Élysée (@Elysee) June 13, 2021
Earlier I posted a tweet from a Politico Europe journalist complaining that he had been told that no foreign media were being invited to Boris Johnson’s press conference. The journalist was clearly misled, because Johnson did take questions from some non-British journalists. I’ve taken down the post with that tweet because it was misleading.
Johnson says no leader complained to him about UK aid cuts at summit
Q: [From the Guardian’s Heather Stewart] You seem to have made little progress towards a financing mechanism for the climate crisis. Will people conclude the G7 is not serious about it?
Johnson says there is a lot of money still to raise. The UK has put in a contribution. But he thinks they can get there. Why should someone in the developing world bear all the cost if the developing world has created the problem?
Q: Did the UK’s aid cuts leave you without the moral authority to insist on a more generous vaccine offer?
Johnson says he does not accept that. He says the UK has made significant contributions. He says no one at the summit asked him about aid cuts, let alone the leaders of recipient countries. He says they know the UK is one of the biggest donors in the world. The UK is still the second biggest aid contributor in the G7.
UPDATE: Johnson said:
I obviously reject that outright because the UK has given £1.6bn to Gavi [the Vaccine Alliance], £548m to Covax and half a billion vaccines that are being distributed around the world.
The point you just raised with me has not been raised by anybody else, any other international leader, let alone the leader of any recipient country, because they know that the UK is one of the biggest donors in the world.
They know that in spite of the global pandemic, in spite of having to spend £407bn supporting jobs and families and livelihoods in this country, we are spending 10 billion supporting the poorest and the neediest.
Updated
Q: [From La Repubblica] Is the G7 now more focused on Asia? And what do you think of Mario Draghi? Do you blame him for the EU’s response to the financial crisis. (Draghi was president of the European Central Bank after 2011).
Johnson says he remembers when Draghi said he would do whatever it took to save the euro. That was successful. Draghi is a brilliant economist, he says.
On the Indo-Pacific region, Johnson says this is the area of the world where people will see most economic growth. He says there will be threats there to the rules-based international system. The UK will stand up for that system.
Q: Can you promise full reopening will not be delayed for longer than four weeks?
Johnson says he understands why people are asking this. But he will address it tomorrow.
Q: Do you support dropping patents on vaccines?
Johnson says the crucial thing is to build up manufacturing capacity around the world, especially in Africa. He says he thinks the vaccines should be sold at cost. That is why he champions the Oxford/AstraZeneca model.
Q: (From the New York Times) What do you say to claims you are a clone of Donald Trump? And are you worried having someone so pro-Ireland in the White House. Joe Biden quotes Yeats in practically every speech.
Johnson says it is the job of the UK prime minister to get on with the American president. And he says he and Biden are “totally on the same page” on the climate.
When it comes to building back better for the world and making sure that we build back greener together we are totally on the same page. It has been very refreshing and very interesting to listen to.
They share many policy goals, he says.
He says he expects the Northern Ireland protocol problem to be fixed.
Updated
Q: Do you think coronavirus came from a Chinese laboratory?
Johnson says he does not think that, but he thinks it is sensible to keep an open mind.
At the moment, the advice that we have had is that it doesn’t look as though this particular disease of zoonotic origin came from a lab.
Clearly anybody sensible would want to keep an open mind about that.
Q: At Wembley some fans booed when the players took the knee. What is your reaction? And would you take the knee yourself?
Johnson says people should cheer the England team. And he says he is unlikely to be called up to play for England (implying the second question is hypothetical).
Updated
Q: [From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg] Were you offended by what President Macron said about Northern Ireland?
Johnson says it is the job of the PM to defend the integrity of the UK. He says the topic occupied only a very small proportion of their deliberations.
Q: Are you disappointed the G7 did not go further on vaccines?
Johnson says he thinks it has been a productive summit.
Johnson rejects claims G7 has failed on vaccines, saying its offer is 'massive'
Q: [From ITV’s Robert Peston] There does not seem to be agreement on a binding timetable for things like eliminating petrol cars. Why is this so difficult?
Johnson says the G7 has made great commitments on climate change. Leaders have agreed to stop subsidising coal. They all took significant steps forward towards the $100bn needed by Cop26. (See 12.43pm.)
Q: Gordon Brown says the G7 vaccine offer is a moral failure? (See 9.54am.) Is he right?
Johnson rejects this. He says there has been a “massive contribution”.
Q: Did you explain to President Macron that Northern Ireland is part of the UK?
Johnson says he repeatedly makes the point that it is part of “one, great indivisible United Kingdom”.
We are all part of one great indivisible United Kingdom and that is the job of the UK government to uphold.
Updated
Q: Your foreign secretary said President Macron’s remarks were offensive. Are you telling me that’s not a row?
Johnson repeats the point about most conversations covering other topics.
Johnson plays down seriousness of rift with EU on Brexit
Q: [From Sky’s Beth Rigby] On Covid, 44% of the population have had two doses. What percentage needs to be double-vaccinated before stage 4 can proceed?
Johnson says he is still looking at the data. No final decision has been taken. He will “fill everybody in” on what is happening from 21 June tomorrow.
He says it will be set out in full tomorrow.
Q: You have provoked a diplomatic row with France. Do you regret that?
Johnson says the “vast, vast majority” of the conversations at the summit have been about other subjects, and he says there has been a “fantastic degree of harmony” on items like the climate and vaccines.
Johnson says this was the first zero-carbon summit.
And Carbis Bay, one of the most beautiful places in the world, was a fitting venue, he says.
G7 leaders have pledged more to address climate change, he says.
He ends his opening remarks by thinking the people of Cornwall for hosting them.
Johnson says the Global Partnership of Education is putting more money into educating children in the poorest countries, especially girls. The UK has contributed £430m, he says.
Johnson says he is pleased to say leaders have announced more than one billion vaccine doses for poorer countries, either directly or through Covax.
He says the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is the world’s most popular vaccine. It was funded by the UK and is being sold at cost.
He says half a billion people have been saved by this vaccine.
It is being distributed by AstraZeneca for zero profit, he says.
Johnson says this is the first gathering, pretty much, of any world leaders since the pandemic started.
He says he hopes the summit has lived up to some expectations.
He is sorry the England football team will not be able to watch, he jokes.
Boris Johnson's press conference
Boris Johnson has arrived for the press conference
Bloomberg’s Alberto Nardelli has written up the key points from the G7 summit communique.
NEW: The main points in the G7 communique: https://t.co/574brCLy7r
— Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) June 13, 2021
President Biden has now left the G7 summit, aP’s Jonathan Lemire reports. The US president is now heading for Windsor Castle for tea with the Queen.
Departing the G7: the rides for President Biden and the White House press pool pic.twitter.com/1EE7Glv2ut
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) June 13, 2021
From Times Radio’s Tom Newton Dunn
PM's G7 press conefrece to start a few minutes early, at 1.55, to avoid the 2pm England kick off clash. Listen live on @TimesRadio (while watching the game on telly with the sound down?)
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) June 13, 2021
This is from my colleague Heather Stewart, who is at Carbis Bay for the Boris Johnson press conference.
Lovely view of the sea for my first actual, in person press conference since (I think) the last face to face Downing Street briefing in March last year. pic.twitter.com/sGso7uKQ83
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) June 13, 2021
This is from Die Welt’s Stefanie Bolzen.
@welt just asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel about her favourite #G7 entertainment. ‘It was a great honour 3 generations of the Royal Family met with us, and especially Her Majesty the Queen. That was a unique moment for all of us.’ pic.twitter.com/j7SQFRq1Pm
— StefanieBolzen (@StefanieBolzen) June 13, 2021
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has said that with Joe Biden US president instead of Donald Trump, the world can address its problems “with a new zest”, Bloomberg reports.
“Look, the election of Joe Biden as U.S. president doesn't mean that the world has no longer problems.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 13, 2021
“But we can work on the solution of these problems with a new zest,” Germany’s Angela Merkel told reporters, per @ArneDelfs.
It was Merkel’s final G7. pic.twitter.com/LLjx0c9e5Z
President Biden has held a meeting at the summit with the Japanese prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, the Hill reports.
Biden reaffirms support for Olympics during meeting with Japan's prime minister https://t.co/IWKrDSa1sd pic.twitter.com/tTKPLA4KfG
— The Hill (@thehill) June 13, 2021
This is from Jennifer Jacobs, a Bloomberg White House reporters.
BREAKING: Biden and leaders of world’s six wealthiest nations call for fresh probe of coronavirus origins.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 13, 2021
G7 communique also calls on China to respect human rights, confirms donations of 1 billion vaccines.
Reuters says it has seen an “almost finalised” draft of the G7 communique saying the G7 will commit to providing one billion doses of vaccine to poorer countries over the next year. Earlier Sky’s Dominic Waghorn reported that one draft of the communique said just 840 million doses were being committed. (See 12.50pm.)
David Attenborough's message to G7 leaders
Here is Sir David Attenborough’s message to G7 leaders. The UK government has appointed Attenborough as the “people’s advocate” for the Cop26 climate crisis conference it is hosting in Glasgow in November.
"Staying below 1.5 degrees is the only chance we have of avoiding these tipping points and stabilising our world again"
— COP26 (@COP26) June 13, 2021
👉 #COP26 People’s Advocate, Sir David Attenborough, addressing @G7 Leaders.#TogetherForOurPlanet 🌏#G7UK | #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/TSI6t5VOED
This is from my colleague Patrick Wintour, on the German G7 announcements.
Merkel Germany to fund 350m extra doses for poor countries, 2.3bn doses in total for poor countries end 2022, no exit date for coal, but aim to reach net zero greenhouse emissions asap, forced labour in Xinjiang named, new G7 infrastructure scheme to rival BRI start next year.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) June 13, 2021
According to Dominic Waghorn, Sky News’ diplomatic editor, the G7 communique suggests the leaders have committed to supply 840 million doses of vaccine to poorer countries over the next year.
BREAKING: Sky News has seen a draft resolution of #G7 final communique in which commitment to share surplus vaccine doses falls short of 1 billion. 'committing to sharing at least 840 million doses directly over the next year'.
— Dominic Waghorn (@DominicWaghorn) June 13, 2021
But on Friday Boris Johnson set one billion doses as a target and this morning Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said he thought they did have a commitment to one billion doses. (See 10.14am.) Failing to hit that goal would be an embarrassing setback.
Even the target that was set out by Johnson has been dismissed as inadequate by campaigners. (See 9.15am and 9.54am.)
Updated
G7 leaders agree to increase climate finance contributions
The G7 leaders have to increase their climate finance contributions and meet an overdue spending pledge of $100 billion a year to help poorer countries, calling on other developed countries to join the effort, Reuters reports. Reuters says:
In a copy of a joint communique following a weekend meeting of the world’s seven largest advanced economies, the G7 said: “We reaffirm the collective developed countries goal to jointly mobilise $100 billion/year from public and private sources, through to 2025, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation.”
“Towards this end, we commit to each increase and improve our overall international public climate finance contributions for this period and call on other developed countries to join and enhance their contributions to this effort.”
My colleague Patrick Wintour has a further quote from the French hitting back at claims that President Macron did not know Northern Ireland was part of the UK.
Regarding the Northern Ireland issue this morning, French diplomatic source : “I’m certain the Prime Minister knows that Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain”.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) June 13, 2021
The Sunday Telegraph version of this story is the one that seems to have most angered the Elysee Palace. (See 12.15pm.) This was the article quoted by the DUP leader Edwin Poots in his press release criticising Macron. (See 11.55am.)
Boris Johnson has opened the final session of the G7 summit, which is devoted to the climate crisis. He said they would be making big commitments on climate finance, on phasing out coal, on electric vehicle and on protecting nature and biodiversity. Then he introduced Sir David Attenborough, the veteran broadcaster and environmentalist, who addressed the leaders virtually, saying the decisions they would make this decade could be the most important in history. (See 8.25am.)
According to Reuters, the Elysee Palace has insisted the President Macron did not say Northern Ireland was not a part of the UK when he spoke to Boris Johnson yesterday. Reuters quotes an Elysee source as saying:
The president said that Toulouse and Paris were part of a single geographic area and that Northern Ireland was on an island.
The president wants to highlight that the situation was quite different and that it wasn’t right to draw this kind of comparison.
“This kind of comparison” refers to Johnson saying: “How would you like it if the French courts stopped you moving Toulouse sausages to Paris?” (See 9.03am.)
According to a separate Reuters report, the French have also accused No 10 as using the Northern Ireland row as a distraction. Reuters says:
A French diplomatic source accused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government of using a Brexit-related row over Northern Irish trade to distract from the real issues of the G7 summit.
“It’s a distraction,” the source said over the latest dispute between the two countries that is centred on how to moved chilled meats from Britain to its province Northern Ireland after Brexit.
“He [Macron] told him: don’t tell me you didn’t know what you were signing for [when you signed the Brexit deal in December].”
Edwin Poots, the new DUP leader, has described the French president’s comments about Northern Ireland yesterday (see 9.03am) as offensive. In a statement he said:
Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that Northern Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom is offensive and demands a statement from the French administration which recognises Northern Ireland’s constitutional status.
Poots seems to have based his press release on a news report that did not take allowance of French briefing saying that Macron was not explicitly saying that Northern Ireland was not part of the UK. Instead, Macron was reportedly making a point about the UK being made up of four nations, meaning that Northern Ireland does have a different status in some respects.
Nevertheless, it is interesting that Poots has used the same comment about Macron as Dominic Raab. (See 9.03am.)
This is from Mark Landler, the New York Times’ London bureau chief.
Joe Biden’s call for a western alternative to China’s belt-and-road project gives this G7 real ambition. But the lack of detail, targets, and a divided Europe raise doubts about how realistic it is. W/@SangerNYT https://t.co/wSs6O9utQH
— Mark Landler (@MarkLandler) June 13, 2021
At the No 10 briefing the prime minister’s spokesman would not formally confirm reports that, when Emmanuel Macron held talks with Boris Johnson yesterday, the French president suggested that Northern Ireland was not a full part of the UK. (See 9.03am.) But the spokesman did not deny it either, and he said EU figures had made comments to this effect in the past. He said:
The point that the foreign secretary was making [in his Sky interview this morning] is that he has had views, as have been reported this morning, put to him previously from those within the EU, and that is why it is important that we keep emphasising the territorial integrity of the entire United Kingdom.
No 10 denies G7 beach party broke Covid social distancing rules
At a briefing this morning Downing Street rejected suggestions that the party for G7 leaders on the beach at Carbis Bay last night breached Covid social distancing rules. The prime minister’s spokesman said:
The event last night was done in an entirely Covid-secure way within the existing rules ...
This was an informal gathering of the G7 leaders and rightly it is held in private ... but you can see it was a relaxed atmosphere and gave the leaders a chance to discuss outside of a formal setting.
The spokesman also said that those attending the summit had a daily testing regime and the event was held outside.
The BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, has some pictures of the party.
Leaders watching the Red Arrows from the beach pic.twitter.com/2JOX5ODERe
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 12, 2021
More snaps from the beach .. pic.twitter.com/S0nIjzah9B
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 12, 2021
Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, has this morning published the text of the speech he gave at the G7 yesterday in which he called on the G7 countries to contribute more to address “the substantial financing gap for tests, treatments, critical supplies like oxygen” to help developing countries deal with Covid.
President @CyrilRamaphosa remarks at the G7 Leaders’ Summit session on building back stronger-health, Saturday, 12 June 2021 https://t.co/5f1oYrlwA7
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) June 13, 2021
Ramaphosa also urged them to back the proposed waiver of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which could facilitate the production of vaccines around the world by suspending intellectual property rights.
Bloomberg has written up his comments here.
UPDATE: Dominic Waghorn, Sky News’ diplomatic editor, says the UK and Germany are thought to be opposed to the TRIPS waiver proposal.
South African president pushing idea of lifting patents on vaccines, share knowledge on making vaccines not just vaccine doses. French behind him. Will #G7 final communique include anything close? UK and Germany thought to be opposed. https://t.co/aZBOfOrvJn
— Dominic Waghorn (@DominicWaghorn) June 13, 2021
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This is from ITV’s Libby Wiener, who has some footage of Joe Biden’s motorcade.
Hard to miss the Bidens in Cornwall but they’ve also ventured out more than other G7 leaders pic.twitter.com/2PuHRdatlE
— Libby Wiener (@LibbyWienerITV) June 13, 2021
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Boris Johnson also held a bilateral meeting this morning with the South Korean president Moon Jae-in, one of the four non-G7 leaders also invited to participate. According to the No 10 read-out, the two leaders “set out their commitment to increasing UK-South Korea links across trade, security and defence, as the UK strengthens its ties with the Indo-Pacific region”.
Boris Johnson did not join his fellow Catholic Joe Biden at mass this morning. (See 10.24am.) But, as the BBC reports, he did go for a swim at Carbis Bay.
Of course, whether Johnson really counts as a Catholic is a matter of debate. His recent marriage to Carrie took place in a Catholic cathedral, and he was baptised as a Catholic as a baby (although subsequently confirmed as an Anglican). On the basis of this, he has been described as Britain’s first Catholic prime minister. But Johnson is not a regular churchgoer and Downing Street refuses to discuss his religious affiliation. As ITV’s Robert Peston discusses in this blog, when he asked Johnson in an interview yesterday if he considered himself a practicing Catholic, Johnson refused to answer.
There was huge excitement at the church of the Sacred Heart and St Ia in St Ives when Joe and Jill Biden arrived for morning mass.
The president was 15 minutes late as his cavalcade negotiated the twisting streets of the harbourside town.
Parishioner Ann Buckleysaid: “It was an ordinary mass. He didn’t arrive on time. He missed father’s sermon. Father didn’t wait for him. He has another mass in Penzance to get to. It’s not every day you see the president of the US.”
Her brother, Martin, was disappointed that Boris Johnson hadn’t visited too: “Boris gets married Westminster Cathedral but doesn’t come here. What a golden opportunity and he didn’t come.”
This is from Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs.
Biden and the 1st lady arrive for Sunday mass at the Sacred Heart and St. Ia Catholic Church in St. Ives, England, on day five of 1st overseas trip as president. pic.twitter.com/AaXfq9FwRF
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) June 13, 2021
Boris Johnson and Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, agreed that there is “an urgent need to expand vaccine manufacturing capacity around the world and increase access”, No 10 said in its read-out of the meeting.
Aid campaigners want more clarity about G7's pledge for 1bn vaccine doses
This morning Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary, said G7 leaders would meet the target set by Boris Johnson for G7 countries to commit to donating one billion doses of vaccine to poorer countries. (See 8.36am.) Raab said:
We now believe that we’ve got a commitment for a billion doses to go to vaccinating the world by the middle of next year.
The current trajectory had us on the end of 2024, and that is a game changer in dealing with the pandemic and getting the world back to normal.
As my colleague Patrick Wintour reports, aid campaigners want more clarity about what has actually been agreed.
One campaign asking for greater clarity from G7 leaders on its plan to speed the flow of vaccines to low income countries. Says there is a fog of mystery around the plan and asks for details to be spelt out as below pic.twitter.com/PF25MDVZ4G
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) June 13, 2021
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There are two items on the formal G7 agenda for this morning.
From 9.45am to 11.15am: Plenary session on open societies
From 11.30am to 1.30am: Plenary session on climate and nature
Brown says G7 summit will be remembered as 'unforgivable moral failure'
In his Sky News interview Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, said this G7 summit would be remembered as an “unforgivable moral failure” because its vaccine plan for the developing world was not ambitious enough. He explained:
When we needed 11 billion vaccines, we’ve only got offered a plan for one billion.
I think this summit will also go down as an unforgivable moral failure, when the richest countries are sitting around the table with the power to do something about it.
Now that we’ve discovered the vaccine, we have not delivered the comprehensive plan that will deliver vaccination by the middle of next year ...
We will have a huge problem of a division between the richest countries that are safe and the poorest countries that are not safe.
But then the problem will come back to haunt the richest countries because we will have contagion spreading that will hurt even the people who are vaccinated because of mutations and variants.
Brown has been a leading figure in a global campaign saying the G7 should commit to a $60bn two-year vaccine and healthcare support package for poor countries.
In interviews at the G7 on Friday and Saturday Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to rule out the UK acting unilaterally again to disapply parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, the agreement governing post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has different rules because, unlike the rest of the UK, it remained in the EU single market.
At the end of this month the “grace period” which meant chilled meats going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland were exempt from the restrictions is due to end. Northern Ireland supermarkets were supposed to use this period to source supplies from Ireland, but now the UK government is saying it is absurd that the EU wants to stop British sausages being sold in Northern Ireland and Johnson has not ruled out unilaterally extending the grace period.
Micheál Martin, the Irish taoiseach (PM), told Sky News in an interview broadcast this morning that it would be “very problematic” if the UK did this. He said:
I think it will be very problematic because it’s not about sausages per se, it really is about the fact that an agreement had been entered into, not too long ago, signed off by the British government with the European Union.
If there’s consistent, unilateral deviation from that agreement, that clearly undermines the broader relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which is in nobody’s interest and therefore that’s why the UK with the EU have to work very hard now in the coming weeks.
But Martin also said that he thought there was a desire both on the EU side and on the UK side to find a resolution to this dispute.
Gordon Brown says 'thousands will die' because G7 vaccine commitments do not go far enough
Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, has told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday that thousands of people will die because the G7 commitments on vaccines do not go far enough. These are from the Sun’s Kate Ferguson.
Gordon Brown slams the G7 for not coughing up enough to vaccinate the world against Covid. "Millions of people will go unvaccinated and thousands will die." #ridge
— Kate Ferguson (@kateferguson4) June 13, 2021
Gordon Brown: "The whole world will not be vaccinated by the middle of 2022 and we will have a huge difference between countries that are safe and countries that are not." #ridge
— Kate Ferguson (@kateferguson4) June 13, 2021
Raab suggests it was 'offensive' for Macron to imply Northern Ireland not full part of UK
Q: Is it right that President Macron told the PM that Northern Ireland was not part of the UK?
Raab says he will not “spill the beans” on what was said at a private meeting yesterday.
But he effectively confirms the reports, saying it is not just one person. He says senior EU figures have been talking about Northern Ireland as if is different from the rest of the UK. He goes on:
We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it was some kind of different country to the UK. That is not only offensive, it has real world effects in the communities in Northern Ireland, creates great concern, creates great consternation. But also, could you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, one of the lander in Germany, northern Italy, Corsica in France as different countries? We need a bit of respect here, and also, frankly, an appreciation of the situation for all communities in Northern Ireland.
At their bilateral yesterday, in a conversation about the Northern Ireland protocol, Boris Johnson reportedly told Emmanuel Macron: “How would you like it if the French courts stopped you moving Toulouse sausages to Paris?” Macron reportedly replied that was “not a good comparison because Paris and Toulouse are part of the same country”.
This has been reported as Macron saying Northern Ireland was not part of the UK, although, according to the Sunday Times, “a source in the French delegation said that Macron was well aware that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom”. Macron was making the point that the UK, which comprises four nations, is not the same as a unitary state like France, the source told the Sunday Times.
Updated
Raab says G7 leaders have committed to supply 1bn vaccine doses to poorer countries over next year
Trevor Phillips is now interviewing Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary, from the G7 in summit on Sky News. Asked what the summit had achieved, Raab said there was now an agreement from G7 leaders to supply one billion doses of vaccine to poorer countries over the next year.
Updated
David Attenborough tells leaders climate decisions now are ‘most important in human history’
Good morning. It is the final day of the G7 summit at Carbis Bay in Cornwall and overnight Downing Street has put out a statement highlighting two new initiatives.
- The G7 is adopting a “Build Back Better for the World” initiative. No 10 says:
G7 leaders are expected to agree plans today (Sunday) to transform the financing of infrastructure projects in developing countries, part of a raft of measures at the Summit to address the climate crisis and protect nature.
The ‘Build Back Better for the World’ plan will bring together G7 countries under the UK’s presidency to develop an offer for high quality financing for vital infrastructure, from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia.
The new approach is intended to give developing countries access to more, better and faster finance, while accelerating the global shift to renewable energy and sustainable technology. The Government will build on this with other countries ahead of the COP26 Summit in November.
This is another example of Boris Johnson aligning G7 goals with a Tory election slogan, but perhaps his fellow G7 leaders do not mind. This fund is being seen as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative, its highly ambitious plan to use infrastructure finance to extend Chinese influence, especially in Asia and Africa, and “Build Back Better for the World” has strong US support.
- The UK is launching a £500m Blue Planet Fund. No 10 says:
The prime minister has also launched the UK’s Blue Planet Fund from the G7 Summit’s ocean-side setting in Cornwall. The £500m fund will support countries including Ghana, Indonesia and Pacific island states to tackle unsustainable fishing, protect and restore coastal ecosystems like mangroves and coral reefs, and reduce marine pollution.
No 10 also says the G7 will endorse a “nature compact” this afternoon “to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 – including supporting the global target to conserve or protect at least 30 percent of land and 30 percent of ocean globally by the end of the decade”.
To help make the case for the nature compact, the veteran broadcaster and environmentalist Sir David Attenborough will address the G7 today. In a comment released in advance, he said:
The natural world today is greatly diminished. That is undeniable. Our climate is warming fast. That is beyond doubt. Our societies and nations are unequal and that is sadly is plain to see
But the question science forces us to address specifically in 2021 is whether as a result of these intertwined facts we are on the verge of destabilising the entire planet?
If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade - in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations - are the most important in human history.
This blog will be focusing just on the G7 today. The summit is due to wrap up at lunchtime, and at 2pm Boris Johnson is due to hold a press conference. Other leaders will be speaking to the media then too.
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