Boris Johnson says G7 summit ‘could not come at better time’ as he plans to vaccinate the world
BORIS Johnson has said the G7 summit comes at a “crucial” time as he pledged to help “vaccinate the world“.
The Prime Minister will welcome US President Joe Biden and other world leaders to Cornwall for the annual summit.
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Mr Johnson will meet with Mr Biden today ahead of the three-day summit, which starts on Friday at the Carbis Bay coastal estate.
Writing in The Times, the PM hailed this year’s G7, saying it “could not come at a better time” and is “a chance to show the world our values: openness, freedom, democracy”.
The coronavirus pandemic is set to be top of the leaders’ agenda, with Mr Johnson vowing to donate millions of the UK’s spare vaccine supply to help inoculate the world’s population by the end of 2022.
Mr Johnson wrote: “This is the moment for the world’s greatest and most technologically advanced democracies to shoulder their responsibilities and to vaccinate the world, because no one can be properly protected until everyone has been protected.
BORIS’S G7 PLEDGE
“The G7 will pledge to distribute vaccines to inoculate the world by the end of next year, with millions coming from surplus UK stocks.
“We will begin the framing of a new global treaty on pandemic preparedness so the world is never caught out in the same way again.”
He went on to hail the AstraZeneca/ University of Oxford vaccine, with 95 per cent of the Covax worldwide vaccine-sharing scheme supply from the Anglo-Swedish pharma giants.
Mr Johnson also said leaders will work to reduce carbon emissions, fight the loss of biodiversity and get another 40 million girls into school by 2025.
The G7 will pledge to distribute vaccines to inoculate the world by the end of next year, with millions coming from surplus UK stocks
Boris Johnson
In a reference to Winston Churchill and President Franklin D Roosevelt’s declaration of post-war cooperation in 1941, the Prime Minister said the UK and US “will be drawing up a new Atlantic Charter”.
He wrote: “President Biden and I will sign a charter that encompasses science, technology and trade and, above all, that underscores our joint commitment to Nato that has been indispensable to our security for decades.”
Other G7 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, are also flying to Cornwall for the annual summit.
They will be joined by invited leaders of India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa.
Mr Biden arrived at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk yesterday evening, before touching down in Newquay at midnight.
Last night, the US President gave a rallying speech to troops stationed in Britain saying “I’ll tell Mr Putin what I want him to know”.
Mr Johnson pointed to Britain having Europe’s biggest defence budget and contributing more troops than any country to Nato’s deployment in Poland and the Baltic states.
He said: “Britain is doing more to guarantee the security of our continent than any other European power.
“Wherever you look — the G7, Nato, the global struggle against Covid — Britain is the “buckle that fastens, the hyphen that joins” everything together.”
As Britain currently holds the G7 presidency Mr Johnson will be leading discussions with any agreement having an impact across the world.
This weekend’s talks will be the first time since the pandemic began 18 months ago that the leaders have met in person.
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The PM will urge counterparts to bolster manufacturing for vaccines, tear down barriers for global distribution and give leftover doses to countries in need.
He will tell them to follow in Britain’s footsteps and ship off extra doses of homegrown doses, as the UK has done with the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab
The Oxford vaccine has been rolled out in 166 countries, compared to 99 for Pfizer and 45 for Moderna.