The MEA spokesperson said the agenda of the visit includes participation in the outreach session and, on the sidelines, several bilateral meetings with world leaders are also lined up…reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in southern Italy’s Apulia region to attend the Group of Seven (G7) Summit’s Outreach Session on Friday. During the day-long visit, he will also hold several bilateral meetings with world leaders.
“Landed in Italy to take part in the G7 Summit. Looking forward to engaging in productive discussions with world leaders. Together, we aim to address global challenges and foster international cooperation for a brighter future,” Prime Minister Modi posted on X.
Prime Minister Modi has arrived at Brindisi Airport in Italy to participate in the G7 Summit, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a video message from the airport.
The MEA spokesperson said the agenda of the visit includes participation in the outreach session and, on the sidelines, several bilateral meetings with world leaders are also lined up.
Sources said that the Prime Minister will hold bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before leaving for the outreach session – which majorly focuses on artificial intelligence, energy, Africa, and the Mediterranean.
Later, he is expected to hold talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida.
While there is a chance of them meeting informally during the official photo-op, there is no scheduled bilateral meeting between PM Modi and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.
Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Thursday told reporters en route to Brindisi that US President Joe Biden and PM Modi will have an “opportunity to encounter one another” during the G7 session.
“President Biden actually spoke with Prime Minister Modi over the phone while we were in Paris to congratulate him on the election outcome and on being named Prime Minister for a third term,” said Sullivan.
Atterrato in Italia per partecipare al Vertice G7. Impaziente di avviare interazioni produttive con i leader del mondo. Insieme, desideriamo affrontare le questioni globali e incoraggiare la cooperazione internazionale per un futuro migliore. pic.twitter.com/rUP9Nw63YY
“He expects to see Prime Minister Modi here. It’s up to the Indians to formally confirm his attendance, but we expect that the two of them will have the opportunity to encounter one another. What the nature of that encounter will be is still fluid because so much of the schedule is fluid,” the US NSA added.
This is Prime Minister Modi’s first overseas visit after assuming office for the third consecutive term, and his fifth consecutive participation in the Summit.
It will be for the 11th time that India will be taking part in the G7 Summit.
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the Russian invasion looms large, and would be a significant conversation during the summit…reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden arrived in Japan Thursday with plans to meet privately with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of the larger Group of Seven summit — a sign of how the economic and national security alliance between the two countries has strengthened.
Kishida’s home city of Hiroshima will play host to the gathering of major industrialised nations. The setting of Hiroshima, where the US dropped the first nuclear bomb in 1945 during World War II, carries newfound resonance as the US, Japan and their allies strategise on dealing with Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the Russian invasion looms large, and would be a significant conversation during the summit.
“There will be discussions about the battlefield,” Sullivan said aboard Air Force One, stressing that the G-7 leaders would work to seal off any loopholes in sanctions so their effect can be maximised.
“There’ll be discussions about the state of play on sanctions and the steps that the G-7 will collectively commit to on enforcement in particular.”
Sullivan said the alliance between the US and Japan was at a “genuine high-water mark.”
He said Biden and Kishida, in their meeting, will aim to advance a relationship that’s progressed over the course of the last two years “in every dimension, whether it’s the military dimension of the alliance, the economic dimension, the recently concluded agreement on clean energy, the work we’re doing together on economic security.”
Last year, Biden came to Tokyo to discuss Indo-Pacific strategy and launch a new trade framework for the region, with the US president and Kishida engaging in an 85-minute tea ceremony and seafood dinner.
Kishida was quick to call out the risks of nuclear-power Russia invading Ukraine in 2022, saying then, “Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow.”
China has declared a limitless friendship with Russia, increasing trade in ways that blunted the ability of financial sanctions to constrain the war. But the US and its allies say China has yet to ship military equipment to Russia, a sign that the friendship might have some boundaries.
70 CEOs ask G7 leaders to support net-zero commitments
Biden and Kishida also have economic matters to consider. The US and Japan have begun to redefine global trade with an eye toward supply chain resilience and national security.
They recently signed an agreement on critical mineral supply chains. They’re also cooperating on the development of renewable energy sources and partnering on efforts to limit China’s access to advanced computer chips.
Kishida hopes to discuss further strengthening of deterrence and response capability with Biden in the face of China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as confirming the importance of the Taiwan Strait for global peace and stability. China has asserted that self-governing Taiwan should come under its rule. US officials have been briefed on the possible economic damage caused by a war over Taiwan, which would disrupt the supply of advanced computer chips.
Japan is also keen to discuss ways to reinforce its three-way partnership with the US and Seoul following an April agreement between the United States and South Korea to strengthen their tools to deter the risk of a nuclear attack by North Korea.
Kishida and Biden will hold a trilateral summit with South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol on the sidelines of the G-7 summit. But Kishida is in a complicated position by discussing efforts to respond to nuclear threats by North Korea with Japan’s history of also calling for a world free from nuclear arms, said Kan Kimura, a Kobe University professor and an expert on South Korea.
In the wake of World War II, Japan embraced pacifism. The atomic bomb scorched Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people and destroying most of the river delta city’s buildings. But current conditions are testing Japan’s pacifism and anti-nuclear weapon tradition.
“Kishida is from Hiroshima, believes deeply in the disarmament agenda,” said Christopher Johnstone, a senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “Of course, Kishida is walking a fine line. He recognizes the need for the nuclear umbrella, Japan’s dependence on US extended deterrence — that that’s more vital than ever, frankly, in the current security environment.”
There are outstanding issues between the US and China. During a January meeting with Kishida, Biden brought up the case of Lt. Ridge Alkonis, a US Navy officer deployed to Japan who last year was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to the negligent driving deaths of two Japanese citizens in May 2021, according to a senior administration official.
Alkonis also agreed to pay the victims USD 1.65 million in restitution. His family is seeking his release, saying he was detained until he confessed.
As much as Biden believes he has improved relations with US allies, he still faces political turmoil at home.
The president on Wednesday curtailed part of his trip across the Pacific Ocean. He will skip Papua New Guinea and Australia in order to return to Washington in hopes of finalising a deal to raise the federal government’s debt limit.
“The work that we need to do bilaterally with Australia and with the Pacific Islands is work that can be done at a later date, whereas the final stretch of negotiations over the debt limit or the budget cannot be done at a later date,” Sullivan said Wednesday.
Climate change, an increasingly assertive China and the rise of authoritarianism are also set to be on the agenda…reports Asian Lite News
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomes leaders of the Group of Seven rich democracies on Sunday to a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and its far-reaching consequences, from energy shortages to a food crisis.
The summit takes place against a darker backdrop than last year when the British, Canadian, French, German, Italian, Japanese and U.S. leaders met for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic and vowed to build back better.
Soaring global energy and food prices are hitting economic growth in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The United Nations warned on Friday of an “unprecedented global hunger crisis”.
Climate change, an increasingly assertive China and the rise of authoritarianism are also set to be on the agenda.
The G7 leaders are expected to seek to show a united front on supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary and cranking up pressure on the Kremlin – although they will want to avoid sanctions that could stoke inflation and exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis affecting their own people.
“The main message from the G7 will be unity and coordination of action… That’s the main message, that even through difficult times… we stick to our alliance,” an EU official said.
The G7 partners are set to agree to ban imports of gold from Russia, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. A German government source later said that leaders were having “really constructive” conversations on a possible price cap on Russian oil imports.
The G7 leaders are also expected to discuss options for tackling rising energy prices and replacing Russian oil and gas imports.
The summit takes place at the castle resort of Schloss Elmau at the foot of Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze – the same venue as when the country last hosted the G7 annual meet-up in 2015. Then too, Russian aggression against Ukraine dominated the agenda a year after Moscow’s invasion of Crimea.
The summit is also a chance for Scholz to capitalise on being the host by displaying more assertive leadership on the Ukraine crisis.
The chancellor vowed a revolution in German foreign and defence policy after Russia’s invasion in February, promising to bolster the military with a 100 billion euro fund and send weapons to Ukraine.
But critics have since charged him with foot-dragging and sending mixed messages by warning that Russia might perceive NATO as a war party and highlighting the risk of nuclear war.
The G7 was founded in 1975 as a forum for the richest nations to discuss crises such as the OPEC oil embargo.
It became the G8 after Russia was admitted six years after the fall of the Soviet Union. But Moscow was suspended in 2014 after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
Global Partners
This year, Scholz has invited as partner countries Senegal, currently chairing the African Union, Argentina, currently heading the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, as well as Indonesia and India, the current and next hosts of the G20 group of large industrial nations, as well as South Africa.
“The summit must send not only the message that NATO and the G7 are more united than ever, but also that the democracies of the world stand together against Putin’s imperialism just as they do in the fight against hunger and poverty,” Scholz told the German parliament this week.
Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine, they need the support and resolve of the @G7 more than ever.
The UK will continue to back Ukraine every step of the way, because we know that their security is our security, and their freedom is our freedom. pic.twitter.com/hXJ4jhCN1I
Many countries of the global south are concerned about the collateral damage from western sanctions.
An EU official said G7 countries would impress upon the partner countries that food price spikes hitting them were the result of Russia’s actions and that there were no sanctions targeting food. It was also a mistake to think of the Ukraine war as a local matter.
“It’s more than this. It’s questioning the order, the post Second World War order,” the official said.
US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron (Credit twitter @POTUS)
The G7 leaders and their delegations were still negotiating the details of a communique expected to be released at the end of the summit, although it is unclear that the document will call out China by name, reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden is pushing world leaders to call out China over allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang as the Group of Seven (G7) leaders prepare to unveil a global infrastructure plan meant to compete with Beijing.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Biden will join leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom for a session focused on China on the second day of the G7 summit. The main issue during the session will be how China has divided world leaders and Biden will be urging democratic nations to jointly confront Beijing and French President Emmanuel Macron calling for a more cautious approach.
Now that we are together, united, determined to make a difference, it's time to deliver. I'm sure we will, @JoeBiden! pic.twitter.com/VmkvCV1yG5
The G7 leaders and their delegations were still negotiating the details of a communique expected to be released at the end of the summit, although it is unclear that the document will call out China by name.
“It’s an expression of our shared values to make clear what we won’t tolerate as the United States and as a G7, so we think it’s critical to call out the use of forced labour,” the official said.
This comes as human rights groups, along with leading countries, have alleged that Chinese authorities are committing genocide against ethnic Uyghur Muslims and using forced labour in the Xinjiang region. However, China has refuted these allegations, claiming to combat terrorism and improving livelihoods in Xinjiang.
G7 foreign ministers in a joint statement on May said: “In line with its obligations under international and national law, we call on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a Bilateral with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel at the G7 Leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street
Under the current G7 summit theme ‘Build Back Better’, Biden administration officials said that the plan is to be an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure effort aimed at binding China more closely to the rest of the world, reported WSJ.
However, some European leaders have warned against antagonising China, arguing that it is counterproductive and could complicate their efforts to seek Beijing’s cooperation on issues like climate change, trade and finance.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration officials said they were not trying to make China the overriding issue at the summit, according to WSJ.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a Bilateral with the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel at the G7 Leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street
“This is not just about confronting or taking on China; this is about providing a positive, affirmative vision for the world,” the official said.
The G7 summit began formally on Friday as the leaders of the world’s most advanced economies gathered on the Cornish coast for the first time since the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The gathered nations will pledge to donate 1 billion COVID vaccine doses, with the US providing about half of those shots.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a Bilateral with the French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 Leaders Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street
The G7 summit was shaping up to potentially be one of the most consequential in recent memory with a pandemic raging in much of the world, a global economy still in shock and threats rising from Russia and China, CNN reported.
Queen Elizabeth II and other senior members of the royal family also met G7 leaders and their partners at a reception in Cornwall. (ANI)
India has also stepped up its engagement with the European Union, reports Asian Lite News
The Group of Seven (G7) summit is going to be held between June 11 and June 13 in the Cornwall region of the United Kingdom. The summit, which will see the digital participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also marks an important step towards a new global compact between India and the West.
This is not the first time that India is participating in the G-7 nor is it novel to have G-7 leaders invite different countries to join them in extended consultations with leaders from the non-Western world. The difference this time is the conception behind Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s invitation to the leaders of India, Australia, South Africa and South Korea to join the G-7 summit this year.
Writing in The Indian Express, director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, C. Raja Mohan says that for India, the Cornwall summit comes amidst intensifying strategic cooperation with the West. This includes strong bilateral strategic cooperation with the US, France, UK as well as the Quad and the trilateral partnerships with France and Australia as well as Japan and Australia, he says.
India has also stepped up its engagement with the European Union.
Raja Mohan points out that the increasing intensity of this engagement with the US and the West has been triggered in part by the continuous deterioration of the relationship with China. The frequent military crises at the northern frontiers — in 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2020 — have compelled Delhi to reevaluate its threat perceptions, he adds.
Besides the threat to territorial security, India finds that its hopes for strong global cooperation with China — through such forums as the RIC (Russia-India-China forum), BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) — have taken a big beating in recent years.
China is the only great power that does not support India’s permanent membership of the UN Security Council and blocks India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
It is one of the “obstacles to India’s global aspirations”, the author notes. India has relied on Western support to fend off China’s effort to internationalise the Kashmir question after the 2019 constitutional changes. The West is also more empathetic than China on India’s international campaign to contain Pakistan’s support for cross-border terrorism.
The author notes that India is not only reluctant to integrate with the China-led Asian economic order, but it is also turning to the West — the US, UK, EU and others — for trade agreements. India is also eager to emerge as a critical node in future supply chains oriented to the democratic world, including in the area of vaccine production.
However, the author points out that it will surely not be easy translating the broad convergences between India and the West into tangible cooperation. That would require sustained negotiations on converting shared interests — on reforming the global economic order, mitigating climate change, promoting greener growth, making the world immune to future pandemics, and constructing trusted supply chains — into concrete outcomes, he says. (INN)
