G-7 Leaders Committed to Peace, Stability of Taiwan

Cornwall, England, June 13 (Jiji Press)--Leaders of the Group of Seven key industrialized nations clarified their commitment on Sunday to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, cautioning against Chinese military pressure on the self-ruled island. "We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues," the G-7 leaders said in a communique summing their discussions at the three-day meeting through Sunday in a seaside resort in Cornwall, southwestern England. This is the first time for a G-7 summit statement to refer to Taiwan, which China regards as a breakaway province that needs to be reunited with the mainland. In an indirect reference to China, the leaders also said, "We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions." The G-7 leaders, therefore, highlighted their unity as democracies in confronting China, which has taken increasingly hegemonic actions. At a news conference after the G-7 summit, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who chaired the conference, said the G-7 countries need to show the world the benefits of democracy, freedom and respect for human rights. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters that the G-7 countries, which share universal values, want to lead efforts to maintain international order. The G-7 summit, held in person for the first time in about two years after last year's meeting was canceled due to the pandemic, brought together leaders of the seven countries--Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States--as well as the European Union. Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, on which Japan and the United States place emphasis, were mentioned in the summit communique after the wording was included in a joint statement adopted by the G-7 foreign ministers at their meeting in May. There are some differences among the G-7 countries in terms of their attitudes toward China, but they kept in step with each other at the summit. The summit communique also referred to human rights issues in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region and called on China "to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms." The G-7 leaders discussed the novel coronavirus pandemic as a key topic. To help bring the virus crisis in developing countries under control, the leaders agreed to provide at least one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world by the end of 2022. Suga expressed his determination to hold the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer as planned, after a one-year postponement caused by the pandemic, and asked his G-7 colleagues to send strong delegations. Suga told reporters that he has received strong support from all other G-7 leaders, adding that he has renewed his determination to make a success of the Tokyo Games. The communique said, "We...reiterate our support for the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 in a safe and secure manner as a symbol of global unity in overcoming COVID-19." On climate change, the G-7 leaders adopted action plans to speed up the global shift away from thermal coal power generation. They reaffirmed their unity to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions effectively to zero by 2050 and agreed to promote the use of environment-friendly energy, such as renewable energy. The leaders also agreed to terminate new direct government support for thermal coal power generation by the end of this year. But if measures such as the use of technology to capture carbon dioxide are taken, public support can be provided. Using this exception clause, Japan plans to continue exports of thermal coal power plants. At the Cornwall meeting, Suga and Biden were among first-time participants at a G-7 summit. G-7 collaboration had been undermined by confrontations between the United States and Europe mainly over the fight against climate change when Biden's immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, was in office and promoted his isolationist "America First" policy. With Biden valuing multilateral cooperation, this year's meeting signaled the revival of the G-7 framework. The next G-7 summit will be held in Germany in 2022 and Japan will host a summit in 2023. END