G7 Foreign Ministers Meet Face-to-Face After Pandemic Pause

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy industrialized nations are gathering Tuesday in London - their first face-to-face meeting in more than two years - to grapple with threats to health, prosperity and democracy.
Host
country Britain has warned that the increasingly aggressive activities of
Russia, China, and Iran pose a challenge to democratic societies and the
international rule of law.
UK
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain´s presidency of the G-7 this year
"is an opportunity to bring together open, democratic societies and
demonstrate unity at a time when it is much needed to tackle shared challenges
and rising threats."
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diplomats from the UK, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and
Japan are holding two days of talks with an agenda that includes the coup in
Myanmar, the Tigray crisis in Ethiopia, and the precarious situation in
Afghanistan, where US troops and their NATO allies are winding down a
two-decade deployment.
The
UK Foreign Office said the group would also discuss "Russia´s ongoing
malign activity," including Moscow's troop buildup on the border with
Ukraine and the imprisonment of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
G-7
ministers will also try to agree on a way to make coronavirus vaccines
available around the globe. Wealthy countries have been reluctant to give up
precious stocks until they have inoculated their own populations.
Organizers
have taken steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the London meeting,
including setting up plastic screens between participants and making on-site
coronavirus tests available.
The
British government invited the foreign ministers of Australia, India, South
Korea and South Africa to join parts of the meeting, including a Tuesday dinner
at the grand Lancaster House in central London. The guest list was intended to
underline the G-7´s support for democracies, as well as the UK government´s
attempts to build stronger ties with Asia in the wake of the country´s
departure from the European Union.
The
government hopes the resumption of in-person G-7 meetings - after more than a
year of disruption by the coronavirus pandemic - will give the group a jolt of
energy and bolster attempts to forge a post-Brexit "Global Britain"
role for the UK.
Prime
Minister Boris Johnson is set to host the other G-7 leaders at a summit in
Cornwall, England, in June.
Opposition
politicians and international aid organizations say the goal of Britain playing
a bigger role in world affairs is undermined by the government's decision to
slash its foreign aid budget from 0.7% of gross domestic product to 0.5%
because of the economic hit from the pandemic.
Raab
said Monday that the aid cuts were a "difficult decision" but
insisted Britain would become "an even greater force for good in the world."
Raab
met Monday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is due to hold talks
with Johnson on Tuesday.
The
US and Britain both dismissed reports coming out of Iran that they are
thrashing out a prisoner exchange deal with Tehran that could see the imminent
release of British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and four Americans.
Blinken
said "the reports coming out of Tehran are not accurate."