 Welcome to another International Relations capsule for the Shankar IAS Academy. Today our topic is the G7 summit which concluded in Cornwall, England yesterday that is 13th June 2021. This was an unusual summit in many ways. This is the first time that the leaders of the G7 are meeting face to face after the onset of the pandemic. These seven wealthiest nations in the world went through a crisis in the last year and more. Ironically, the pandemic affected the wealthiest of nations first, contrary to normal habits of epidemics which come from the south and go to the north. Not only that, the damage done to these countries was the worst compared to other countries. So what we saw in Cornwall was a group of countries which was very proud of its wealth and its prestige and its influence looking very vulnerable. They went there to avert a crisis rather than to enjoy their celebrity status which they used to do at these meetings to dictate to the world what they should be doing. That was the role of G77. In fact, in 2008 because of the economic crisis G7 suffered a bit but then G20 was formed. But after that G7 had recovered also. But this time the mode was one of a crisis. The silver lining was the change of leadership in the United States because President Trump had not cared much about his colleagues in G7 and he had really alienated these leaders. So the fact that there was a change in the leadership and there was a president who believed in multilateralism and in friendship with allies came onto the scene. That was the silver lining against the atmosphere of crisis that they faced. The most important crisis of course is the aftermath of the pandemic, COVID-19. Well, we can say aftermath but we don't know whether it is over. But at least the first wave had more or less concluded and they are in the process of rebuilding. More than that, it was necessary to make sure that no more damage is done to the world. So many precautions had to be taken. The other problems that they faced were climate change which is likely to become acute and if it is not controlled, the humanity will suffer an account of that also. Third, China had emerged as a strong power during the pandemic. They used the opportunity to strengthen themselves and to assert themselves. Similarly, Russia had also become an adversary. So on the one hand, they had to deal with the pandemic and try and save the world from the activation of the disease. They had to do something about climate change which was eluding solution so far. Then how to deal with the challenge of China and Russia. So in this atmosphere of tension and restlessness, G7 took very quick decisions on the agenda they had in front of them. But this was to avert a disaster and to find a way forward. So they were winding a way forward out of their vulnerabilities because their status in the world had diminished over the last year or more. As far as the pandemic is concerned, the biggest question mark is distribution of vaccines. The decision taken on vaccines was important but at the same time it was criticized as too little, too late. The requirement of vaccines to vaccinate 70% of the world's population to get herd immunity is a huge task and the amount of vaccines required for this purpose is huge. Since the production, distribution and administration of vaccines was not done centrally. This was all done in different places and there was no coordination at all at any level. WHO tried but each country did its own activities and they could not coordinate it. So here the major decision that they took was to vow to share vaccine doses with poorer nations that urgently needed them. This was not charity but a dire need of the group itself to prevent more waves of infection. But even in this situation what they pledged was only 1 billion doses with half of that coming from the United States and about 100 million from Great Britain. The number of doses is still too low. Moreover, it is not just a matter of making vaccines available but also providing financing to move them to the places to be delivered and administered and also the cost of the vaccines themselves. The rules of WHO were framed on the presumption that such crises would come from developing countries and then grow, move to the developed world. As early as in 2005, Senator Barack Obama said that the U.S. is in danger because he was talking, he did not know about COVID-19. He said there is a danger of pandemics coming from the developing countries and therefore it will be an immediate crisis for us. At that time, even he did not imagine that this could arise because it arose in China. China is of course the second most powerful country but not in G7. But the infection went and it went from outside China. It was the G7 countries which were most affected. So it was immediate and urgent for the developed countries to make sure that this does not spread again to the rest of the world and come back again. So for their own survival, this was necessary but still the decision they took was not adequate. But this is just the beginning. There are several other efforts. Quad is trying to manufacture and distribute. India is trying to multiply its vaccine production and so all these seven countries, US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada will coordinate this and in addition to that, there are guest countries. We were there, India, South Korea, Australia, South Africa. So several efforts in different places but G7 made this determination that this much of vaccines will be made and input. The second issue that they dealt with was climate change. President, I'm sorry, Prince Charles who addressed G7 on the first day said, that's all very well for you to attend to the pandemic but you should give the same attention to climate change also because it was also looming as a danger to mankind. So G7 pledged to make themselves carbon free by 2015 and to provide technology and funding to the developed countries to help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The name given to the project was built back better for the world to speed up the global shift from conventional energy to renewable energy. And this is in a way to also counter the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative which was providing assistance to member countries and there was a consideration at that time that G7 should find an alternative to Belt and Road Initiative to support member countries and others to build a future without involving themselves in the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. So the G7 community, the G7 community have found its commitment to jointly mobilize US dollars 100 billion per year from public and private sources through to 2025 which may help the negotiations leading to the conference in November 2021. So the plan to persuade all countries to commit themselves to make it carbon, make them carbon free by 2015 would not have been possible if technology and financing were not made available to the developing countries. So a beginning has been made at one time it was calculated in 1992 that it should be 350 billion dollars compared to that after several years now it's only 100 billion per year up to 2025 but still it is better than nothing because earlier there was no commitment by like that they were asking all countries to commit themselves to a carbon free world by a particular year. India is one of those countries which has not been able to indicate a particular year for that. The third issue was how to deal with China and Russia and this dominated the formal and informal discussions. There were statements being made by President Biden on this issue. President Putin has been responding to it. The Chinese have been talking about it but what gripped the attention of G7 was how to deal with China and partly Russia. So these leaders criticized China or human rights in its Indian province called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full and thorough investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China. China has expected China reacted sharply to these demands and warned that the days when a group of countries dictating to the world were over. So the summit US-Russian summit is scheduled this week soon after the G7 and NATO conferences and this generated a lot of interest at the meeting formally and informally. Comments made by President Biden and Putin about each other were mixed but there was agreement that the exit of President Trump was a positive factor in US-Russia relations also. But the overall prospects of the summit remains ominous as President Biden kept talking about Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Putin's growth as a dictator and also the fate of Alexei Navalny who is the leader of the opposition in Russia. So all this do not augur very well for the summit but a meeting face to face between them would help but the status of Russia will continue to be that of an adversary in the eyes of the United States. China as well as China is concerned there is no immediate meeting but I'm sure there will be most words contacting China also. So next to the pandemic and climate change, the relationship with the US with Russia and China were also major issue at the summit. A few other things that they did they agreed to have an agreement on minimum flow for corporation tax of 15% in all the countries of the world. We have taken a significant step towards creating a fairer tax system fit for the 25th century and reversing a 40-year trend. This has been discussed many times but long before the summit started the finance ministers had agreed to this 15% taxes for corporations across the globe though President Biden has suggested even 21%. But this is considered to be a welcome development and even India is supposed to benefit from it. The leaders said in the concluding statement and I'm voting here our collaboration will create a stronger level playing field and it will help raise more tax revenue to support investment and it will crack down on tax avoidance. So this may cause loss to giant corporations because they will have to pay a higher tax but at the same time I'm sure they will accept it because of the benefit it has for the world as a whole. But of course this is not final yet but for the processes involved other countries have to be consulted and but an agreement has been reached in G7 which will now be provided to other countries. As I mentioned earlier there were four special invitees they were not present but they participated online India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa. India was the most prominent obviously and the Prime Minister Modi addressed three separate sessions. The invitation to India was important because of these omers and concerns floating around about the direction that India is taking and present. You know India has been called partly democracy or elected or autocracy etc. but there was no problem about inviting India and India also asserted that G7 is our natural ally and reiterated India's commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty. So many of these doubts about India's future was removed hopefully and once we recovered from the second wave I suppose our original image will return. So in a tweet Prime Minister Narengar Modi said and I'm quoting here I was happy to address the G7 session on open societies as a lead speaker. Democracy and freedom are part of India's civilizational ethos and find expression in the vibrancy and diversity of India's society. So this is declaration and his participation and also advising G7 on various aspects certainly created the atmosphere of relationship between India and the G7 countries. Mr. Modi called for collective action on climate change recognizing that this challenge can't be addressed in compartments. He told them that India was the only G20 country to meet the Paris commitments as of now. The PM also highlighted the importance of the international solar alliance which we are. The G7 communique which was adopted on the last day that is just yesterday contains a six-point agenda summarizing all that I just mentioned. Pandemic reinvigorating economies that is related to the consequences of the pandemic. Securing prosperity also very important because all these countries have lost their wealth to a considerable extent. Then protecting the planet which is of course the climate change issue. Then strengthening partnerships so that the alliances which were broken by the United States and the President Trump would be restored and embracing values which is an indirect criticism of China and Russia etc. not following democratic values and multi-lateralism. So then the communicators mentioned we shall seek to advance this open agenda in collaboration with other countries and within multi-lateral rules based system. In particular we look forward to working alongside our G20 partners and with all relevant international organizations to secure a cleaner freer greener fairer and safer future for our people and the planet. So at the end of the summit there is a certain amount of optimism expressed in these six agenda stages. But also President Biden's declaration that he was going to adopt a new inverted comma strategic concept for China and Russia must have caused some concern. What is this new strategic concept for China and Russia? A little more competition, a little more containment rather than cooperation. So even while declaring G77 declaring for the whole world to work together in unison these two countries seem to be set apart. Of course the G7 realizes that they have to work with these countries also. But that equation having established these things particularly since they have asked for another inquiry into the origin of the pandemic this is not going to be a very easy exercise. So thus concern is there and therefore even though there is this optimism that this is opening a new chapter in international relations particularly the United States having come back to multilateralism the optimism is justified. But at the same time the question mark remains as to what would be the equation that G7 will be able to strike with Russia and China. No other country seems to be significantly opposed to the concepts that G7 has developed. So it remains to be seen how the summit between Biden and Putin will go and how the further discussions between China and the United States will go. President Biden has talked about cooperation with China as against Trump. So that's a good omen but the exchanges that took place between the US and China recently did not go well. It was more an accusatory tone rather than cooperative. So these questions remain but we can consider that G7 has made a contribution a substantial contribution to the raging problems of the world today particularly the pandemic and climate change. It will make a difference but it will not find a final solution. So the work has to continue and other countries like the guess that India was would also cooperate with them and that hopefully will take the world out of the grave crisis which is in today particularly on the question of vaccines and the question of medicines and the question of re-energizing the economies not only of G7 countries but also other countries of Iraq. Thank you very much.