The first summit of the G7 group after the outbreak of coronavirus in 2019 finally happened in Cornwall on 11-13 June 2021. The U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a host of the summit invited besides the G7 leaders, heads of Australia, South Africa, and South Korea as observers, along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who joined the event by video link due to the COVID-19 situation in India.
Expectedly, the meeting was concentrated around the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. G7 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to provide two billion vaccines, including one billion vaccines next year under the ACT-A and its COVAX Facility announced during the previous meeting in February 2021. The statement also promised to enhance the global manufacturing capacity of vaccines, along with a mission to shorten the cycle of vaccine development from 300 to 100 days [G7, 2021]. Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga leading this process, persuaded G7 leaders to allocate more funds and efforts and called to ensure that 70% of the population will be vaccinated by the time of the next G7 meeting. He also saw these measures counterbalancing China’s vaccine diplomacy [Bartlett, 2021]. However, given that it is still vague the distribution models and that the timeframe and volume of vaccines are insufficient to respond to the spread of disease, the intention for providing vaccines among the G7 leaders needs to be more grounded.
Along with statements on strengthening the global health system, leaders paid attention to the recovery of economies after pandemic impediments. World leaders discussed the advancement of recovering plans and shifting from crisis response to promoting growth and prosperity of all groups of the population. Elimination of protectionism, which spread during the COVID-19 pandemic as a reaction to total lockdown is another aim of global leaders. Encouraging free and fair-trade systems through reforming the trading system and global tax system was also on the agenda of G7 leaders. In particular, the allocation of taxing rights and assignment of the global minimum tax of at least 15% on a country-by-country basis would lead to a fairer tax system. Advancing the digital economy and digital technology also stimulates the prosperity of the population that is mentioned in the G7 statement, which would further discuss during the work of digital and technology ministers of G7 member countries [G7, 2021]. It is expected that Biden’s administration that aspires to global coordination in contrast to Trump’s inward-looking policy, will support and contribute to the mentioned efforts and will support G7 initiatives at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) in November 2021 [Herszenhorn, 2021].
The novelty of the past summit was the Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative that promises to provide infrastructure partnership with a USD$40 trillion budget for developing nations by 2035. According to the statement, since the infrastructure gap between middle income and poor countries is exacerbated due to COVID-19 implications, the new initiative will respond by providing finance tools for infrastructural challenges of developing countries. However, the B3W collects more skeptical reactions, because the issue of the infrastructure gap has been recognized long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2009, the problem of infrastructure was voiced out by international banks and organizations during the various global platforms, whilst in the core of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) lay the need for responding to infrastructure issues in developing nations. Moreover, the desire to build “strong standards” that is “a central plank of our approach” as mentioned in the statement also questions the appropriateness of national policies and adds more conditionality to the realization of such an initiative [Griffiths, 2021].
Global leaders also paid attention to climate change challenges, committing to accelerate measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions and try to keep within reach of the global warming threshold of 1.5 °C. G7 leaders called business, civil society, and countries to respond to global climate and biodiversity challenges, including through science-based targets. However, the failure of setting the dates for ending the use of coal and refusal to cease the production of diesel and petrol cars caused controversy among analysts [Herszenhorn, 2021]. On the other hand, given that for instance, European Union produces only 9% of the global emissions of CO2, in comparison to G20 members that represent 70% of emissions, much effort is needed from developing states rather than their wealthiest counterparts [European Commission, 2020].
Gender equity and equality were highlighted as a central pillar for promoting policies to build back better, prioritized by three key priorities: educating girls, empowering women and ending violence against women and girls [G7, 2021].
“Concerns by the use of all forms of forced labor in global supply chains, including state-sponsored forced labor of vulnerable groups and minorities, including in the agricultural, solar, and garment sectors” was targeted to China, which was immediately reacted by Chinese representative urging to “respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, not to interfere in China’s internal affairs” [G7, 2021; Bartlett, 2021]. Belarusian case with the forced landing of flight also was mentioned, emphasizing the need to strongly react to violations of human rights, fundamental freedoms and international law. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders emphasized the support for Ukraine. Regarding Asian affairs, the importance of maintaining a free and open Indo Pacific, along with the calls for completing denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and condemnation of military coup in Myanmar, concerned G7 leaders among other issues [G7, 2021].
In general, although the G7 leaders attempted to find common global solutions during their gathering, much of the announced initiatives remain unclear. For instance, although announced as a counterbalancing to China’s BRI, the B3W initiative did not disclose its financial mechanisms. Similarly, the measures for ending the pandemic remain open. In any case, ideas presented at the G7 summit need to be further discussed during the gathering of G20 members by attracting more leaders to the global challenges. According to the past summit, the health system, climate change, digital technologies, gender equity and equality, along with infrastructure obstacles are major concerns that have to be voiced out for further global and local reactions.
References:
Bartlett, Duncan (2021). What the G-7 Summit in Cornwall Means for Asia. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2021/06/what-the-g-7-summit-in-cornwall-means-for-asia/. Accessed on 10.07.2021.
European Commission (2020). Visit of Josep Borrell Fontelles, Vice-President of the European Commission, to Berlin, Germany: opening of the “Green Central Asia” Conference with Heiko Maas, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/shotlist/I-183648. Accessed on 10.07.2021.
G7 (2021). Carbis Bay G7 Summit Communiqué. Retrieved from https://www.g7uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Carbis-Bay-G7-Summit-Communique-PDF-430KB-25-pages-3-1.pdf. Accessed on 10.07.2021.
Griffiths, Richard (2021). How Appealing is G7s Building Back Better? Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-appealing-g7s-building-back-better-richard-t-griffiths/?trackingId=eVH8aEHvTnq5bXBIlVbHiQ%3D%3D. Accessed on 10.07.2021.
Herszenhorn, David (2021). 5 takeaways from Britain’s G7 summit. Retrieved from https://www.politico.eu/article/5-takeaways-from-britain-g7-summit-cornwall-boris-johnson-coronavirus-china-trade-coal-brexit/. Accessed on 10.07.2021.
Note: The views expressed in this blog are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the Institute’s editorial policy.
Dr. Albina Muratbekova is a research fellow at the Eurasian Research Institute of Akhmet Yassawi Kazakh Turkish International University. Albina holds a PhD degree in Oriental Studies from Al Farabi Kazakh National University. During her studies, Albina received fellowships from institutions in China, India, the USA, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. Her primary research interests cover Central, East, and South Asian affairs; intraregional and interregional cooperation of Central Asian states; China-India relations; and Central Asian politics.