G7 vows action on Covid vaccines, climate change

Merkel says Biden brought 'new momentum' to G7 talks

Senior members of the Royal family led by Queen Elizabeth II played host to the G7 leaders at a dinner on Friday

G7 leaders on Sunday vowed to start delivering one billion doses of Covid vaccines and to step up action on climate change, in a US-led summit call to arms that also took on China and Russia.

In a final communique issued at their first physical summit in nearly two years, the leaders of the elite club largely hewed to US President Joe Biden's push to regain the West's cohesion after Donald Trump's tumultuous tenure.

At a G7 news conference before he headed on to a NATO summit and showdown talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden said his fellow leaders agreed "America is back at the table and fully engaged".

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the summit in southwest England, had described Biden as a "big breath of fresh air" and told reporters Sunday that the G7 stood united anew in its "democratic values".

But the pledge on vaccines for poorer nations fell far short of the 11 billion doses that campaigners say are needed to end a pandemic that has claimed nearly four million lives and wrecked economies around the globe.

"This G7 summit will live on in infamy," said Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at aid group Oxfam.

India and South Africa, who took part in the G7 talks as guests, had pressed for the gathering to waive intellectual property rights on Western vaccines. But Britain and Germany were notable holdouts.

- Taking belt to China -

He said such initiatives would marry the West's intentions to promote democratic values with concrete actions, "helping the world's poorest countries to develop themselves in a way that is clean and green and sustainable".

Instead, the allies adopted a US initiative to "collectively catalyse" hundreds of billions of infrastructure investment for a rival G7 plan called the "Build Back Better World" (B3W) project.

"China has to start acting more responsibly in terms of international norms on human rights and transparency," he added, as the G7 leaders condemned Beijing over rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

Nevertheless, the G7 risked inflaming tensions further by pressing China to let experts from the World Health Organization further investigate how Covid-19 first emerged. 

- Russian cyber attacks -

Biden will meet Putin on Wednesday in Geneva, and said he would be "making myself very clear what the conditions are to get a better relationship with Russia". 

But London sought to bring all sides together using the "soft power" diplomacy of Queen Elizabeth II and her heir Prince Charles, at a Friday night reception for leaders and EU chiefs.

Biden on Sunday became the 13th out of the last 14 sitting US presidents to formally meet the queen, inspecting a royal honour guard at Windsor Castle.

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Originally published as G7 vows action on Covid vaccines, climate change