G7 summit opens with pledge to rebuild world economies

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson opened the G7 summit on Friday with a warning that countries must learn from their mistakes as they rebuild their economies after the pandemic. Mr Johnson welcomed world leaders to the English coast as the summit got under way, with talks focusing on the economic outlook. He told them it was vital not to “repeat the mistake of the last great crisis, the last great economic recession in 2008, when the recovery was not uniform across all parts of society”. “What risks being a lasting scar is that inequalities may be entrenched and we need to make sure that as we recover, we level up across our societies,” he said. Leaders including US President Joe Biden posed for a “family photo” on the beach at Carbis Bay, Cornwall, in a symbolic show of solidarity in their first in-person meeting since the start of the pandemic. Both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles also met the G7 leaders, with the Prince of Wales encouraging countries to “build back better” while also focusing on the fight against climate change. On the sidelines, Mr Johnson discussed Iran and Libya in bilateral talks with G7 leaders to follow his discussions with Mr Biden on Thursday. With Mr Biden on a mission to restore Washington’s global standing and Mr Johnson looking to project British leadership after Brexit, both used the eve of the summit to make pledges on vaccine donation before G7 talks on the subject began. The three-day summit is expected to end with an agreement to share one billion vaccine doses around the world by the end of 2022. Health campaigners including former UK prime minister Gordon Brown said the target did not go far enough. “If the best G7 leaders can manage is to donate one billion vaccine doses, then this summit will have been a failure,” said Anna Marriott, health policy manager at Oxfam. The summit began with tension in the air after leaders of the EU and France voiced frustration with Britain due to a standoff over Northern Ireland, which threatens to overshadow the summit. EU leaders say they will confront Mr Johnson on the subject, while French President Emmanuel Macron told London that “nothing was renegotiable” on the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol. The five EU leaders at the meeting – representing France, Germany, Italy and two top EU institutions – held a private meeting before the welcome ceremony to co-ordinate strategy. Mr Johnson sought to play down the controversy by insisting that the UK, EU and US were all in agreement on protecting the peace deal at the heart of the dispute. Britain said the leaders would discuss sharing technology and strengthening free trade to restore economic prosperity. They will endorse the agreement made by finance ministers last week to establish a global minimum corporation tax, a senior White House official said. Washington said a plan was on the table to reallocate $100 billion from the International Monetary Fund’s war chest to help countries that are struggling to cope with the pandemic. Mr Johnson said leaders would talk about how to build greener and fairer economies and suggested that economies could be rebuilt in a “more gender-neutral and perhaps a more feminine way”.