The leaders of the world’s richest countries have pledged more than 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer nations, endorsed a global minimum tax on multinational corporations and agreed they will work together to challenge China’s “non-market economic practices” and to call on Beijing to respect human rights in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
Speaking at the end of a G7 leaders’ summit in southwest England on Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the promised vaccine doses would come both directly and through the international COVAX program. The commitment falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the world’s population and truly end the pandemic.
In delivering their final statements, leaders covered a range of issues including climate, which was the focus of Sunday's final session.
US President Joe Biden said he had conveyed to G7 leaders that the US "would do its part – we are back at the table".
"You know we had a president who basically said 'It's not a problem, global warming', but it is the existential problem facing humanity," Biden said.
The US president announced that his administration would provide up to $2 billion to support developing countries to transition away from coal-fired power.
But vaccines dominated the discourse.
French President Emmanuel Macron in his closing statements said there was a need for greater transparency on vaccine prices, "so what we ask of developing countries is fairer", he said.
Macron also said France would make a commitment to give 5 million doses to the African Union by the end of summer.
Biden reiterated the G7 group's commitment to deliver 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries.
But he reserved some of his strongest remarks for the issue of democratic values, saying that Western democracies are in a race to compete with autocratic governments.
"We're in a contest, not with China per se, ... with autocrats, autocratic governments around the world, as to whether or not democracies can compete with them in a rapidly changing 21st century," Biden told reporters.
Biden wanted to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing and strongly call out China’s “non-market policies and human rights abuses.”
In the group’s communique published Sunday, the group said: “With regard to China, and competition in the global economy, we will continue to consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy.”
The leaders also said they will promote their values by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, and in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong.
The decision to support a minimum corporate tax had been widely anticipated after finance ministers earlier this month embraced placing a global tax of at least 15 percent on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes.
The minimum rate was championed by the United States and dovetails with the aim of President Joe Biden to focus the summit on ways the democracies can support a more fair global economy by working together.
Rift or 'harmony'?
Johnson, the summit's host, said there was a “fantastic degree of harmony” among the G7 leaders to demonstrate the value of democracy and human rights to the rest of the world and help “the world’s poorest countries to develop themselves in a way that is clean and green and sustainable”.
But his comments belied a rift that developed over the thorny issue of Northern Ireland and trading rights. Johnson was assailed by journalists during his press conference as he tried to dampen controversy over comments made by his foreign secretary on Sunday over Northern Ireland. Dominic Raab created a stir when in a television interview earlier Sunday he said that remarks made by French President Macron on the issue of Northern Ireland were "offensive".
Macron defended his comments saying he told Johnson that France never questioned the integrity of UK territory.
FRANCE 24’s Benedicte Paviot said Northern Ireland “was a very real problem coming into the G7 summit and no doubt in the growing days is going to pose a much bigger problem diplomatically".
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)
