G7 Foreign and Development Ministers will travel to London this
week for their first in-person gathering in more than two years.
Talks will be hosted at a Covid-secure venue in the centre of the
city from Monday to Wednesday.
Foreign Secretary , will seek to establish ambitious targets on climate
finance and girls’ education, a co-ordinated approach to
strengthening global health and new measures to prevent famine.
He will unite Ministers from the world’s leading democracies –
including for the first time, a delegation representing ASEAN.
The G7 talks are an opportunity to bring together diplomacy and
development to secure significant progress towards the UK’s G7
Presidency goals of building back better together from the
covid-19 pandemic, ahead of the Leaders’ Summit in Cornwall in
June.
Foreign Secretary said:
“This week’s G7 meeting shows Global Britain bringing the
world’s biggest democracies together to tackle shared
challenges.
“We'll be taking action to ensure fair access to vaccines
around the world, setting global girls’ education targets,
agreeing ambitious action on climate change and developing new
measures to prevent famine.”
Covid measures will be in place throughout the meetings, to
ensure the health and wellbeing of all staff, attendees, and the
public. This includes an on-site testing facility at the venue,
social distancing measures and Perspex screens to separate
delegates in meetings. There will be strict limits on the size of
delegations and attendees will be required to take regular tests.
The meetings will be a demonstration of how to conduct diplomatic
business safely and successfully as we recover from the pandemic.
As well as G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
the US and UK, plus the EU) the Foreign Secretary has also
invited Australia, India, the Republic of Korea, South Africa,
and the Chair of the ASEAN, to join parts of this year’s G7
Foreign and Development Ministers’ meeting as guests.
Their attendance will bring broader geographic representation of
nations committed to reforming and safeguarding the international
order in which open societies and economies flourish. It also
demonstrates the importance of the Indo-Pacific region to
upholding shared values and norms.
Throughout the week the Foreign Secretary will host bilateral
meetings with each of the G7 foreign ministers and invited
guests. On Bank Holiday Monday, he will meet US Secretary of
State Antony Blinken in London for talks on issues including
trade, China, Afghanistan and Iran.
will also host the Japanese Foreign Minister, Toshimitsu
Motegi, at Chevening to deepen trade and security cooperation and
agree a shared approach on the security of the Indo-Pacific
region.
He will also meet Indian Minister of External Affairs, Dr
Jaishankar, at Chevening. They will discuss the UK’s commitment
to working with India to tackle Covid-19, following the UK Prime
Minister’s pledge that the UK will support India’s fight against
the pandemic.
--ENDS--
Notes to Editors:
UK priorities for the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers
meetings include:
- Defend and promote the role of open societies around the
world, including by agreeing new measures to support media
freedom, tackle disinformation, and enhance coordination on
freedom of religion or belief, sanctions and arbitrary detention.
- Lead by example on climate change to save lives, secure
livelihoods and shape a safer, greener, and fairer future for the
planet. The UK will continue to push for bolder national
commitments and action plans to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030
and reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
- Make a strong, collective commitment to equitable vaccine
access and international collaboration on therapeutics and
diagnostics. The UK will work closely with G7 partners to
strengthen global resilience against future pandemics, leveraging
our scientific base.
- Focus G7 efforts on gender equality, including educating
girls, ending violence against women and girls, and empowering
women to be more active politically and in peace processes. The
UK is clear that building back better and fairer means leaving no
one behind.
- Mobilise resources for life-saving humanitarian support in
countries at highest risk and drive humanitarian action to avert
future food crises.
Further details of covid-19 measures:
- Staff and delegates will need to complete daily covid-19
tests throughout the summit prior to entering any of the venues.
- We will be providing delegates with enough covid tests to
ensure they can take one for each day they are in the UK.
- Constructing an on-site testing facility, which can test up
to 50 delegates per hour.
- There will be strict guidance on social distancing in place
for the whole summit and delegates will often be separated by
Perspex screens in meetings and during working lunches and
dinners.
- We are reducing the scale of the delegations to minimise the
risk and we are cutting the headcount permitted in meeting rooms
significantly.
