Biden brings together Western allies in a global “competition” against autocrats

U.S. President Joe Biden has challenged G7 leaders to use their economic muscle to counter China’s global influence, saying Western democracies are “competing with autocrats”.

Biden said he was “pleased” with the outcome of Sunday’s G7 summit in Cornwall, but urged European leaders to push for more. An alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative offering a wide range of infrastructure financing to poor countries.

At a summit that brings together the world’s most advanced economies, European leaders appeared more cautious about fighting Beijing. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, the presenter of the summit, did not specifically mention China in his closing press conference.

Several leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, said the West needed to work with China on key areas, especially climate change.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said the G7 “is not an enemy of China”, and a British official said: “The aim of the summit is to show what we are talking about, not who we are against.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the creation of a strong group to explore ways for G7 governments to work with the private sector on emerging world infrastructure projects.

After a meeting in Carbis Bay on the Cornish coast of England, Biden praised him summit communiqué Referring to China, he said he was “satisfied” with its content and that there are “numerous actions” in the measures against Beijing.

The US president has stated that there were no references to China in the last time the G7 met. “The G7 explicitly agreed to call for human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong,” he said, adding that there is also a strategy for China to use forced labor.

“We are in a competition, not with China itself, but with rapidly changing autocrats and autocratic governments around the world in a changing 21st century where democracy can compete with them,” Biden said.

On the last day of the three-day meeting, G7 leaders launched a new initiative called “Build Back Better for the World” or B3W, but did not agree on how it should be funded or what it would entail in the specifications. .

According to Biden, a commission will work on the plan, focusing on climate change, health, digital technology and gender equity China has spent billions of dollars about the infrastructure of the poorest countries.

“China has this Belt and Road Initiative, and we believe it is a much fairer way to meet the needs of developing countries around the world,” he said. The new fund would “replace the values ​​that our democracies represent, not the autocratic lack of value.”

However, climate change experts say the G7 meeting has not made any collective commitment to developing nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or tackle climate disasters.

He also watered the engagement G7 environment ministers carried out in the last month, during the period of elimination of coal-fired power plants. The goal of “a fully decarbonised energy system in the 2030s” was abandoned in a recent communiqué.

G7 leaders were also criticized for their ambition Intended to share Covid vaccines with poorer countries. The statement said the group will “share at least 870m of doses directly next year.”

Oxfam responded that “there would be a drop in the billion-dose dose, but they didn’t manage that either.” According to the communiqué, since the beginning of the pandemic, the G7 has provided more than 2 billion doses of vaccines to the developing world.

Biden portrayed the meeting as a break with Trump’s time, saying “America is back on the table. America is the world leader again. ”

A European diplomat said: “Everyone is happy that the US is back, but American leadership means they want something from us.”

Johnson said the summit was marked by “excellent harmony,” though the issue of brexit and the new rules of trade in Northern Ireland Sour conversations with European leaders.

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The British Prime Minister has stressed that he will do “what is necessary” to ensure that the post-Brexit agreement does not impose a sensible burden on trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.

China criticized the US and other G7 members, arguing that “true multilateralism” was based on the UN. “Worldwide decisions are gone in the days promised by a small group of countries,” a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said.

Additional report by Erika Solomon in Berlin