G7 Foreign and Development Ministers met in London from 3 to 5 May 2021. This was the first in person meeting of G-7 ministers after 2019.
Ministers from the UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy, and the EU attended the meeting. Ministers from Australia, India, South Africa, the Republic of Korea, and Brunei joined the meeting at the invitation of the UK which holds this year’s presidency. This meeting was to set groundwork for the 46th G-7 Leaders’ Summit in Cornwall in June this year.
China, Russia, Indo-Pacific COVID-19 were prominent themes in this year’s meeting. In the joint communique released after the meeting the ministers committed to “strengthening open societies, shared values, and the rules-based international order.” THe ministers also called for “strengthened G7-Africa partnerships” and “greater engagement in the Indo-Pacific.”
The communique expressed concern over large build-up of Russian military forces on Ukraine’s borders and Crimean region annexed by Russia. The communique also expressed concern over human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, and they urged China to participate constructively in the rules-based international system, cyberspace, free and fair trade, and deterioration of Hong Kong’s autonomy.
“We need to work together to call out Russia’s behavior, hold Russia accountable for its actions, and press Moscow to adhere to its international commitments and obligations,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Twitter.
China condemned the statement of G-7 leaders. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the G7 for interfering in China’s internal affairs regarding Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang.
As per CGTN, Wang Wenbin said that the concept of rules mentioned by the U.S. is ambiguous. If the rules refer to the ones defined by the U.S. and other few countries, he said, then they are not international rules.
The G7 leaders also expressed concern over human rights violations and abuses in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and called upon the DPRK to refrain from provocative actions and to engage in a diplomatic process with the explicit goal of denuclearisation. The communique condemned the military coup in Myanmar and called upon the military to restore the path to democracy.
India’s External Affairs Minister who was in London to attend the meeting isolated himself after some members of Indian delegation tested positive for COVID-19.
The G-7 was founded in 1975 as a forum for the western nations to discuss crises such as the OPEC oil embargo.
