G7 SUMMIT KICKS OFF ON JUNE 11 AS A UNITED FRONT VS CHINA

Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations will gather in Britain from Friday, June 11, 2021, for their first in-person meeting in nearly two years, seeking to showcase their unity to counter China's growing economic and military assertiveness, Kyodo News reported.

As the world continues to grapple with coronavirus outbreaks, the club of wealthy countries is also expected to discuss ways to tackle the pandemic by speeding up vaccine supplies and ensure the recovery of the global economy, according to US officials.

For Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and US President Joe Biden, the three-day gathering in the seaside resort of Carbis Bay, Cornwall, will be the first G7 summit they will physically attend since taking office in September and January, respectively.

The US held the rotating presidency last year, but Biden's predecessor Donald Trump called the more than four-decade-old G7 framework "outdated" and failed to host an in-person summit amid the pandemic and presidential election.

With Biden vowing to restore alliances and multilateralism, there is also likely to be more of a mood of unity among the leaders compared with the gatherings held during Trump's presidency, when he stood apart on trade and other issues based on his "America First" policy.

Biden said in an opinion piece in The Washington Post on Saturday, June 5, 2021, that the top priorities of the G7 summit will be "ending this pandemic, improving health security for all nations and driving a robust, inclusive global economic recovery."

The president also said the key purpose of his trip to Britain and other parts of Europe -- the first foreign travel of his presidency -- is to work with allies to demonstrate the "capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age."

China is expected to be a key topic at the G7 summit amid concerns over Beijing's alleged human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region, its assertiveness in the East and South China seas, and coercive economic policies.

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