“It is clear to all of us that there can be no turning back and there will be at the time before this war,” said Scholz on Tuesday at Elmau Castle in Upper Bavaria. “It is also clear to us: A time of uncertainty lies ahead of us, it is challenging, and that is why determination and unity are just as important.”
Not only do they want to continue to support Ukraine, they also want to keep the price of the war for Russia high and drive it up further, according to Scholz. The G-7 also agreed with the Global South represented at the summit about the causes of the war. Sometimes there are different views. But there is no doubt that it was “a Russian attack on a neighbor who did not provoke this attack,” said Scholz in his role as incumbent G-7 President.
A lot of work on the price cap for Russian oil
According to Scholz, the plans for a price cap for Russian oil still require “a lot of work”. It is “a very ambitious and very demanding project”. The final statement states that “immediate action will be taken to secure energy supplies and curb the rise in prices caused by the exceptional market conditions, including by examining additional measures such as price caps. We reaffirm our commitment to phase out our dependence on Russian energy without compromising on our climate and environmental goals.”
These were acknowledged in the final declaration: One “commits” to “largely decarbonize the road transport sector by 2030, to completely or largely decarbonize the electricity sector by 2035” and to accelerate the phase-out of energy production with coal – albeit with exceptions .
In addition, they want to set up a “climate club” to help ensure that climate protection “becomes a competitive advantage and is not a disadvantage,” said Scholz. The “Climate Club” is intended to prevent companies from countries that have ambitious climate protection goals from receiving unfair competition from countries with low environmental standards.
Reconstruction of Ukraine “gigantic task”
In the meantime, the G-7 countries are striving for a kind of Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Ukraine. In view of the war-related destruction in Ukraine, the international community is faced with a “gigantic task”, said Scholz. The final statement said the group would support an international conference and a reconstruction program for Ukraine. Planning and implementation of the program should be the responsibility of Ukraine “in close cooperation with international partners”.
$4.5 billion against food crisis
In the fight against an impending hunger crisis, the G-7 countries have committed to providing a further 4.5 billion US dollars (around 4.26 billion euros) for global food security. Hunger in the world had “become an even greater challenge due to the Russian attack on Ukraine,” said Scholz. “We currently have 345 million people who we know are not eating enough.”
Russia was asked to unconditionally end the blockade of Ukrainian ports. Wheat silos and other agricultural infrastructure should no longer be destroyed. “These (activities) can only be interpreted as a geopolitically motivated attack on global food security,” it said. Development organizations complained that the commitments were not enough.
Oxfam called the summit resolutions “a sham intended to distract from the historical failures of the G-7.” The money is not enough to end hunger. There is also no debt relief. For every dollar in aid, there would be two dollars that low-income countries would have to pay their creditors. “The G-7 should have agreed that this debt would be canceled,” Oxfam said.
Scholz sees “great trust among each other”
Scholz also emphasized the importance of such encounters. “I believe that these summit meetings are still of the greatest, greatest importance,” said the SPD politician. “You don’t have much of meetings where politicians meet – in recent years often also on the video stream – and then read statements,” he added.
It is important that the talks in such rounds are that you respond to each other and continue to discuss things bilaterally, “that you can pick up threads of conversation that you have tied half a day later, a day later,” said Scholz. That succeeded in Bavaria. “In this respect, it really paid off that we talked to each other here. A great deal of trust has developed between us and it will help us a lot in the near future.”
G-7 wants to attend G-20 meetings
As far as summits are concerned, Scholz announced that the G-7 heads of state and government will also be present at the upcoming G-20 summit in Indonesia in November – and apparently Putin is not supposed to attend it personally. The Indonesian President Joko Widodo, as the host of the G-20 meeting, said that clearly, reported Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi. It is unclear whether the Kremlin boss wants to take part in the summit via video. In any case, everyone agreed that “we don’t want to drive the G-20 apart,” said Scholz. From today’s perspective, the decision of the states at the G-7 summit was “that they go there”.