Leaders at the G7 2021 summit. Photo- G7
By SAT News Desk
MELBOURNE, 13 June 2021: The three days (11-13 June 2021) Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK G7 summit ended yesterday (13 June 2021) with the world’s leading capitalist countries US, UK, France, Canada, Japan, Italy, and Germany releasing a 25 pages marathon Communique ‘Our Shared Agenda for Global Action to Build Back Better, committing to “free open societies and democracies” & “commitment to multilateralism”.
Leaders of Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa were invited to attend as guest countries. PM Scott Morrison joined the world leaders from Australia, but India’s PM Narendra Modi did not attend because of the impending Covid pandemic in the country.
Four other documents were released by the summit, namely, on Health, Nature Compact, Open Societies, and Research Compact. (LINKS after the end of this report)*.
Welcoming the summit declarations International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said,” “I would like to thank Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the UK authorities for setting up a forward-looking agenda for the G7 summit, focusing on the most pressing challenges facing the world today…” (READ FULL STATEMENT)
Source-G7 Twitter
The COVAX ( CRPI, Gavi, unicef, WHO) in a statement welcomed the G7 announcement of 870 million vaccine doses, of which at least half to be delivered by the end of 2021. (READ FULL STATEMENT)
Meanwhile, Guardian Australia (14 June 2021) analysis sums up the G7 summit as having given no commitment to eradicate coal-fired emissions, only one million extra vaccines to fight the Covid pandemic, no binding commitments to challenge China’s human rights abuses, and the only positives being the relaunch of multilateralism and face-to-face diplomacy.
In a statement, Oxfam’s Max Lawson, Head of Inequality Policy says, ” “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 has 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.” (READ FULL STATEMENT)
Meanwhile, the Global Times quoted a Chinese Embassy spokesman in the UK as saying, ” “We [China] always believe that countries, big or small, strong or weak, poor or rich, are equals, and that world affairs should be handled through consultation by all countries. The days when global decisions were dictated by a small group of countries are long gone.” This narrative has aroused wide concern of foreign media outlets.
With the rise of emerging powers and the decline of the West, the G7’s current global influence and status cannot be mentioned in the same breath in comparison to the days when the bloc was just founded. Yet, the group still clings to the so-called values and the delusion that their small group can decide international affairs. This is the hegemonic logic of Western powers over world affairs.”
* HEALTH DECLARATION
NATURE COMPACT
OPEN SOCITIES
RESEARCH COMPACT
