Margarita M. Phillips 
LATEST NEWS: Suga pledges to ensure Tokyo Olympics success in post-G-7 presser
CARBIS BAY, England – Group of Seven leaders on Sunday underlined the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, a statement that is sure to anger China.
In a statement released after their three-day summit in Cornwall, southwest England, leaders also expressed support for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to be held next month, even though Japan has yet to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as the European Union, have urged China to respect human rights in its Xinjiang region and to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, according to the press release.
This is the first time that the G-7 has referred to the situation in Taiwan in a statement by the leaders, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Beijing sees the autonomous and democratic island as a renegade province to be reunited with the mainland, by force, if necessary. Concerns are growing that Beijing is increasing its military pressure on Taipei.
Other key outcomes of the G-7 summit – the first such face-to-face meeting in nearly two years – include a pledge to expand more than a billion more vaccines to struggling countries in the hope of ending to the global COVID-19 crisis by 2022..
The leaders also condemned in “the strongest terms” the military coup in Myanmar.
In order to counter Beijing’s growing weight, the leaders agreed to launch a new infrastructure project for the developing world worth hundreds of billions of dollars as an alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative of the United Nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Critics say the BIS lacks transparency, has poor environmental and labor standards, and is used to indebted developing countries.
A senior US official pointed to a difference in the positions of G-7 members on China between this year’s summit and that of three years ago.
“If you look at the 2018 press release, China was not even explicitly mentioned, although you could find entire paragraphs devoted to countries like North Korea and Russia,” the official told reporters on Saturday. “At the time, they couldn’t come to a consensus on anything regarding China.”
But G-7 members are now showing “convergence” on issues related to China, such as their response to Beijing’s non-market economic practices, the official said.
With US President Joe Biden striving to restore US leadership on the world stage and emphasizing multilateralism, there appears to have been more unity among the leaders than in rallies held during the presidency of his predecessor Donald Trump, according to the delegates.
Trump had distinguished himself on trade and other issues based on his “America First” mantra. Rejecting alliances and multilateralism, Trump called the more than four decades old G-7 framework “outdated.”
The last in-person G-7 summit, chaired by France in 2019, failed to adopt a comprehensive joint declaration of the usual type of past decades.
The United States held the rotating presidency in 2020, but Trump failed to host an in-person summit amid the pandemic and the presidential election campaign.
Associated coverage:
Biden urges China to act responsibly on human rights
China criticizes G-7 for trying to create global rules in “small group”
Japan’s first lady sees musical with partners of G-7 leaders
