G7 summit: Focus on pandemic and climate change

Leaders of the Group of Major Industrialized Nations (G7) are meeting on Friday for a summit that is overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.   

On the first day, leaders are due to discuss recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on questions such as Covid-19 vaccine donations and financial aid to build vaccine production sites around the world.   

The G7 group has pledged to donate 1 billion vaccine doses to poorer nations, by sharing jabs directly and through financial aid, the British government announced.   

Leaders are also to come up with a plan to extend vaccine manufacturing.   

Ahead of the summit, US President Joe Biden said the US would donate another 500 million vaccine doses to 92 poorer countries and the African Union by June next year.   

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the three-day summit in the coastal village of Carbis Bay, announced that his country would provide 100 million surplus doses, most of them to be distributed through the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme.   

The G7 group remains divided over the issue of lifting patent protection for coronavirus vaccines, as proposed by the US and several other nations.   

The group is also discuss relationships with Russia and China, with Biden looking to strengthen ties with the other G7 members again to create a united counterweight to the two nations. The G7 comprises the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada. On Saturday, the leaders of Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa are invited as guests as well. UK, (dpa) 11 June 2021