The leaders of the group of the seven most industrialized countries in the world, the G7, meet from today, Sunday (06.26.2022) until Tuesday at Elmau Castle, in Bavaria, for a summit whose dominant theme is the war in Ukraine and its economic ravages, both in the price of energy and in the food crisis derived from the blockade on wheat. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, host of the summit, wanted to show confidence in its results: “We can make important decisions (…) if we act unitedly and with determination,” he said.
In their three days of meetings in the Bavarian castle of Elmau, the leaders of the United States, Germany (which holds the rotating presidency), Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada will address other challenges, such as the threat of recession in their countries themselves and the environmental crises caused by climate change. A meeting between Scholz and US President Joe Biden preceded the official opening of the sessions, starting at noon (10:00 GMT). “We must stay together,” Biden told Scholz at the start of that interview. Russian President Vladimir Putin expected “that, one way or another, NATO and the G7 will split,” Biden said. “But we haven’t and we won’t,” he added.
An “unseen cohesion” in the G7
Biden’s Air Force One landed last night at the Munich airport, after which he moved to the Elmau castle and luxury hotel, where French President Emmanuel Macron had arrived shortly before. The dominant issue is the war in Ukraine, in the face of which there is an “unprecedented cohesion” among the G7 around the desire to increase support for the country and give “a clear signal” to Russia, according to German government sources. Russia, let us remember, was expelled from the group, then G8, after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The White House has explained that at the G7 Biden will seek to coordinate closely with allies on priorities such as “further isolating Russia from the global economy, damaging Russia’s defense supply chain, and ending sanctions evasion” to Moscow. . Another of the United States’ priorities at the G7 will be launching “a global infrastructure collaboration” to support low- and middle-income countries; an initiative that the group’s leaders agreed to explore at their summit last year in the UK.
“Together, the G7 will announce the ban on the import of Russian gold, a major export that generates tens of billions of dollars for Russia,” Biden said on his Twitter account. The United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Japan will ban imports of Russian gold, the British government announced on the first day of the summit. “These measures will directly hit the Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Argentina, among the invited countries
The first sessions this Sunday, focused on the global economy, inflation and the search for energy alternatives, will be followed tomorrow by a virtual intervention by the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski. To nurture international alliances, the G7 also invited the leaders of Argentina, India, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa to its summit. The Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, attends the summit after the bilateral meeting held with Scholz last May, focused on the energy potential of this country and the development of renewables.
The G7 delegations are already working intensely on a draft of the final declaration -which could be divided into three sections-. Together with Ukraine and the strong support against Russia, the energy chapter is expected to play a prominent role, as well as the fight against famine that, it is feared, stems from the Russian blockade of Ukrainian wheat, as well as the climate crisis.
Anti-globalization collective protests
The eve of the opening of the summit was marked by a first protest march, in Munich, with some 4,000 attendees, which had been called by various anti-globalization groups and environmental activists. It was much lower than initially planned – some 20,000 attendees – but it is expected that other protest actions will take place throughout this Sunday in Garmisch Partenkirchen, about 20 kilometers from Elmau, where the media and logistics are concentrated. from the summit.
The castle and luxury hotel hosting the summit, at 1,000 meters above sea level, is cordoned off and fenced in a wide radius, as was the case in the previous G7 meeting in the same place, in 2015.
lgc (efe/afp/ep)
(Updated at 13:25 with the group photo)
