Live Updates: UK’s Johnson Welcomes G7 Leaders to Summit in Cornwal

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Cornwall on Friday to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics on the bilateral and international agendas, including a prospective Free Trade Agreement.

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau at the G7 Summit in Cornwall today," the UK Prime Minister's Office said.

According to the press release, the two officials discussed their countries' progress in COVID-19 vaccination and agreed to "continue working closely together to share insights and information."

"The leaders agreed a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement between the UK and Canada would unlock huge opportunities for both of our countries. They agreed to redouble their efforts to secure an FTA as soon as possible," the statement read.

Among foreign policy issues, the two leaders discussed relations with such countries as China and Iran, as well as the downing of the Ukraine International Airlines plane in Tehran last year. Johnson was cited as noting the "remarkable alignment" between the UK and Canada on foreign policy goals, including girls' education, freedom of media, climate change and human rights.

Diplomacy is back. pic.twitter.com/27D316PAqB

— President Biden (@POTUS) June 11, 2021

BERLIN (Sputnik) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested on Friday that the G7’s drive for "values-based" multilateralism was bound to draw criticism from Russia and China.

Merkel spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the United Kingdom's Cornwall. It will be her last G7 leaders' meeting and Joe Biden's first since he became US president in January.

"It is important to be able to meet Joe Biden here because he represents a commitment to multilateralism that we missed in recent years. We will speak out in support of values-based multilateralism, which will lead to a dispute with Russia and in certain areas with China", Merkel said.

"On the other hand, we need everyone. We seek cooperation, particularly on climate protection and biodiversity. We will never find solutions to them without China. We will have much to do here", she added.

The leaders are expected to discuss their countries’ relations with Russia and China. Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva next Wednesday, three days after the G7 gathering wraps up.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - At least one police officer deployed to the G7 summit in the English county of Cornwall has tested positive for COVID-19 and has been placed in self-isolation, along with 11 other officers deemed to have been in contact with the infected individual, Devon and Cornwall Police said on Friday.

"As part of our testing regime, during the early hours of 11 June we have identified one officer who is currently supporting G7 policing and accommodated on the ferry, has given a positive lateral flow test for COVID-19. The officer, plus those who have come into close contact, are currently self-isolating at another designated location. All who have come into close contact or are in the bubble of those who tested positive are also currently self-isolating which equates to 12 officers in total", the statement read.

The G7 summit began in Carbis Bay earlier on Friday. Leaders posed for a so-called family photo and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was very pleased that the leaders of the G7 nations could gather in person for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roughly 6,500 police officers and staff are estimated to be on duty at the G7 summit. The law enforcement authorities rented a large passenger ferry, which is docked at the port of Falmouth, to provide accommodation for a portion of the officers working at the event.

LONDON (Sputnik) – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday called on fellow leaders of the Group of Seven to make their own commitments to get world's most vulnerable children, particularly girls, into school, after pledging 430 million pounds ($607 million) to achieve this target.

"I am calling on other world leaders, including those here at the G7, to also donate and put us firmly on a path to get more girls into the classroom, address the terrible setback to global education caused by coronavirus and help the world build back better", Johnson said at the opening day of the in-person G7 summit being held in the English county of Cornwall over the weekend.

According to the prime minister, the best way to lift countries out of poverty and lead the global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is by investing in education, particularly girl's education.

"It is a source of international shame that every day around the world children bursting with potential are denied the chance to become titans of industry, scientific pioneers or leaders in any field, purely because they are female, their parents' income or the place they were born", Johnson said.

Ahead of the summit, the G7 foreign ministers had agreed in London to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more girls reading by the age of 10 in the next five years.

Italy, which is among the world's seven wealthiest nations alongside the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan and the US, and the European Commission have already made pledges of 25 million euros ($30 million) and 700 million euros ($847 million), respectively, to the Global Partnership for Education established in 2002.

Among the arrested, a 30-year-old man from London, a 21-year-old woman from Wales, and a 20-year-old man from Bournemouth were brought in on suspicion of possessing an item with intent to commit criminal damage. Meanwhile, two men from London, aged 25 and 27, a 45-year-old woman from London, and a 26-year-old woman from Epsom, were suspected of conspiring to commit nuisance.

The G7 summit takes place in the UK resort town of Carbis Bay, which is within a 13-minute drive from Hayle, from Friday to Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday welcomed other G7 leaders to the 3-day summit held in Cornwall.

"Can I begin by welcoming everybody to Carbis Bay and thank you very much for coming. It is genuinely wonderful to see everybody in person, I can't tell you what a difference it makes", Johnson told G7 leaders.

The UK prime minister also said that he hopes G7 countries will learn from the COVID-19 pandemic to not repeat mistakes of the previous 18 months.

"I actually think that this is a meeting that genuinely needs to happen because we need to make sure that we learn the lessons from the pandemic, we need to make sure that we don't repeat some of the errors that we doubtlessly made in the course of the last 18 months or so", he added.

In addition, the prime minister mentioned that G7 leaders are united in their "vision for a cleaner, greener world, a solution to the problems of climate change".

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US and other Group of Seven (G7) countries could redistribute up to $100 billion in IMF funds to countries that need urgent support in fighting the coronavirus, the White House announced on Friday.

"The United States and our G7 partners are actively considering a global effort to multiply the impact of the International Monetary Fund’s [IMF] proposed Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation to the countries most in need. At potentially up to $100 billion in size, the proposed effort would further support health needs – including vaccinations – and help enable greener, more robust economic recoveries in vulnerable countries, and promote a more balanced, sustained, and inclusive global recovery", the White House said.

LONDON (Sputnik) - The UK government, which is hosting the Group of Seven in-person summit starting on Friday in the English county of Cornwall announced that the leaders of the world´s richest nations will agree to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to low-income countries.

"At the Summit world leaders are expected to announce they will provide at least 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to the world through dose sharing and financing and set out a plan to expand vaccine manufacturing in order to achieve that goal," the official statement said.

Prior to the three-day meeting at the Carbis Bay Hotel, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had called his fellow G7 leaders to commit to vaccinate the entire world by the end of 2022, and to lead by example announced that the United Kingdom will donate at least 100 million extra COVID-19 vaccine doses within this year.

"As a result of the success of the UK’s vaccine programme we are now in a position to share some of our surplus doses with those who need them. In doing so we will take a massive step towards beating this pandemic for good," Johnson was quoted as saying in the official statement.