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The meeting is the first in the G7 group, seven leading democracies led by the United States, since April last year, and therefore also the first for Joe Biden as president of the United States.
The US president declared in his speech that the United States “is determined to regain the trust of Europe.”
Due to the pandemic, the meeting is being held digitally. Covid-19 is also a given topic in discussions between Biden and the heads of state and government of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, and Canada.
“This virtual meeting with the leaders of the world’s leading democratic market economies is an opportunity for President Biden to discuss how to overcome the covid-19 pandemic and rebuild the global economy,” the White House said in a statement before the G7 summit.
Covax billion
At the same time, the White House announced that Biden is pledging four billion dollars, equivalent to more than 34 billion crowns, in support of the World Health Organization (WHO) Covax global vaccine program. The message was that half would be paid at the end of the month, while the rest would be spread over the next two years.
Payments must already have been approved by Congress.
Joe Biden has always wanted to increase America’s participation in various international cooperation agencies, in stark contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump and his motto “America first.”
So far, it has been said, among other things, that the United States has re-entered the Paris Agreement and has become a member of the WHO.
“Vaccine only way”
The EU is also opening its wallet and expanding previously promised Covax credits. According to a joint statement issued on Friday afternoon by the seven countries, support for Covax will increase to a total of 7.5 billion euros, which corresponds to just over 75 billion Swedish crowns.
Germany was one of the countries that earlier in the day announced that, in addition to the 600 million euros already reserved for vaccines in economically disadvantaged countries, an additional 1,500 million euros (just over 15,000 million crowns) will be allocated.
“Today we want to make it clear that we are on the side of the poor countries. Germany is allocating 1.5 billion euros to Covax, the WHO and other (actors), “German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said in a statement.
