The picture shows a customer shopping at a store in Berlin, the capital of Germany. Photo by Stefan Zetz (Xinhua News Agency)
From June 26 to 28 local time, the three-day Group of Seven (G7) Leaders' Summit was held in Ermou Castle, Bavaria, Germany. The leaders of the participating parties discussed the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and sanctions against Russia, climate change, energy security, the global economic situation, and the new crown pneumonia epidemic. German media reported that in the nearly 50 years of the G7's history, it has never faced so many crises. German Chancellor Schoelz said the summit clearly would not solve all the problems and could only make some "useful preparations".
It is understood that in addition to the leaders of the G7 member states and the European Union, germany, the host country of the summit, also invited India, Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal and Argentina to participate in five guest countries. It is reported that among these 5 countries, India, Indonesia and South Africa all abstained in the vote organized by the United Nations on condemning Russia. Scholz said it was "important" to have discussions with these countries, "The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has had an impact on the whole world, we must be united, and we want to show that solidarity here." However, some analysts pointed out that the show at this summit is far greater than the actual effect, and the United States and Europe are trying to show unity in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Issue of China, but in fact, they have their own thoughts, their differences are obvious, and it is difficult to resolve in the short term.
Launch of the Global Infrastructure Initiative
On the first day of the summit, the leaders of the seven countries jointly announced the launch of the "Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership" plan, saying that they will raise $600 billion over the next five years to provide infrastructure construction funds for developing countries. The German media claimed that this was a strategic plan of the West to counter China's "Belt and Road" initiative.
Scholz said the plan was originally proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden, and the joint announcement of the plan at the G7 summit "demonstrates the unity of the G7." Biden said the U.S. will raise $200 billion in public and private funding for the program by 2027, saying the program will benefit the world, especially developing countries. In addition, Germany, France, Italy and other countries will participate in the program through the Eu. European Commission President von der Leyen announced that EU countries will jointly provide 300 billion euros for a "sustainable" global infrastructure project.
Although the plan does not directly name China, it is clearly aimed at countering China's "Belt and Road" initiative, and has even been called an "anti-Silk Road" plan by the German media.
Ahead of the summit, White House National Security Council official Kirby had said China would be an "important focus" for the G7 summit. In May, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken similarly said that although the Russian-Ukrainian conflict had triggered a serious crisis, he believed that "China is the greatest challenge to the international order."
In fact, the global infrastructure plan was unveiled at the Group of Seven summit hosted by the United Kingdom last year, but at that time Biden called it a "better world" plan, claiming to invest more than $40 trillion to meet the infrastructure needs of developing countries. Subsequently, the EU actively responded and cooperated with the United States to launch the "Global Gateway" program. Therefore, the "Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership" plan proposed at this summit can be called a shrunken version of the previous two "big cakes".
German media commented that the investment plan is a response from Western countries to China's "large-scale investment" in developing countries. But analysts point out that the United States often glorifies such initiatives in the name of "openness," but its real attempt is to contain China and contain China's development. The so-called hundreds of billions of dollars of investment is only to serve the geopolitical purposes of the United States itself, but it is likely to be a "blank check" in the end.
Increase sanctions against Russia
How to deal with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is another major topic of this G7 summit. At the June 27 summit, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy was also invited to talk with the leaders of the seven countries through a network of ways.
Before the official start of the summit on June 26, Scholz took the lead in bilateral meetings with Biden. According to a statement issued by the White House, Biden welcomed Germany's "historic commitment" to significantly increase defense spending in bilateral talks. The United States and Germany will continue to provide military, economic, humanitarian, and diplomatic support to Ukraine and work to mitigate the impact of military conflict on global food and energy security.
Apparently, the joint allies to increase sanctions against Russia is the focus of Biden's trip to Europe, and before the summit began, Biden could not wait to declare through social media that "the Group of Seven will jointly announce a ban on the import of Russian gold, because gold is a major export product that earns tens of billions of dollars for Russia." Later, at the June 26 summit, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan jointly announced that they would ban gold imports from Russia.
However, European countries such as Germany, France and Italy have not committed to participating in sanctions that prohibit the import of Russian gold. Scholz said the issue "still has to be discussed within the EU" and that "therefore this is not something that can be decided at this summit, and such sanctions must be agreed by the 27 EU member states".
Some analysts pointed out that the symbolic significance of the gold ban is obviously greater than the actual significance, and the final result may be counterproductive. In this regard, the American economist Peter Schiff said, "This move will once again have the opposite effect." Biden will hit the Americans, not Putin. Americans will eventually pay a higher price for gold. Biden is doing Russia a favor."
In addition, in terms of sanctions against Russia, whether to set a global price cap on the import of Russian oil is another focus of debate among the leaders of the participating countries. It is reported that the US government has been studying this plan for several weeks, and shortly before the summit, Biden announced to the outside world that he hoped that the leaders of the seven countries would jointly promote the implementation of the plan to set a global price cap on Russian oil, in order to achieve two purposes: on the one hand, through the plan to significantly reduce the revenue of Russian oil exports, on the other hand, try to prevent Russia from suspending foreign oil exports and triggering a rise in global oil prices.
According to German media reports, although some European countries were skeptical of the plan, the leaders of the seven countries eventually reached a compromise and agreed to set a price cap on Russian oil. EU leaders have now asked the European Commission to explore options for pricing imports of Russian oil. However, the implementation plan also needs the unanimous consent of the EU27 countries in the end, so there is great uncertainty about whether it can be implemented. European Council President Michel said the specifics of the "price limit" program are yet to be determined, and "the goal is to target Russia, not to make our lives more difficult and complicated." In addition, according to an internal EU official, the implementation of the plan needs to involve as many countries as possible, otherwise Russia will only provide less oil to Western countries and more oil to China, India and other countries.
At a press conference after the June 28 summit, Scholz said that "the G7 will unreservedly support Ukraine in the future and will continue to provide military and humanitarian assistance to it." Countries have jointly studied the long-term reconstruction of Ukraine, "we need a 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine."
It triggered a large number of demonstrations
During the summit, thousands of opponents held a demonstration outside the venue, Elmouth Castle, demanding that the G7 "not engage in small groups" and earnestly fulfill their responsibilities to actively address climate change and global hunger.
On the opening day of the summit on June 26, mass protests took place in downtown Munich, where thousands of protesters from 15 civil society organizations gathered on The Trecia's lawn, the otherwise empty grounds flying colorful slogan flags. On the lawn, a satirical cartoon poster of the leaders of the Seven Kingdoms, held by dozens of students, sleeping together in the same quilt, stood out, with the words "Wake up!" G7”。 Protesters say hunger will increase as long as there is war, a climate crisis, inequality and the G7 must act. So far, however, the G7 has been weak in its efforts to phase out fossil fuels and tackle global hunger.
It is reported that at the scene of the protest, Marko, head of the "Socialist German Workers' Youth" organization, said that the Group of Seven only considers its own interests, and the summit only considers and discusses issues from the perspective of interests within the Group of Seven and related interest groups, ignoring the interests of ordinary people. In the case of severe inflation in many countries, the governments of Western countries have provided military and financial assistance to Ukraine despite the continued high cost of living of their own people, squeezing out the investment of various countries in the field of people's livelihood.
In this regard, German media analysis said that just to show the unity of the Western world to hold a huge summit, revealing "an empty show" signal. In just 48 hours for the summit, the leaders of various countries led a huge team to Fly to Germany to participate in the conference, and stayed in the luxurious Elmaut Castle Hotel, using a huge amount of manpower and material resources. According to statistics, the security funding of the summit is at least 180 million euros, and the German government has dispatched more than 18,000 policemen. Some analysts pointed out that the Group of Seven has not met the requirements of the times and urgently needs to change, and this summit is a clear example of Western politics becoming out of touch with reality. (Economic Daily reporter in Berlin, Chen Ximeng)
Source: Economic Daily