Britain vows West, allies will ‘stand against aggressors’ ahead of G7 meet
- The two-day gathering of foreign and development ministers will be the last in-person meeting of Britain’s year-long Group of Seven presidency
- Asean ministers will join the summit for the first time ever on Sunday. South Korea, Australia, South Africa and India will also take part
“We need to come together strongly to stand up to aggressors who are seeking to limit the bounds of freedom and democracy,” Truss said as she formally opened the talks, without mentioning specific countries. “To do this, we need to have a fully united voice. We need to expand our economic and security posture around the world.”
Truss held talks on the sidelines of the summit on Friday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as well as Germany’s new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
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Truss said before the meeting that she wanted deeper ties between G7 nations in trade, investment, technology and security “so we can defend and advance freedom and democracy across the world”.
“I will be pushing that point over the next few days,” she added.
Truss, who replaced Dominic Raab as Britain’s top diplomat in September, delivered her first major foreign policy address Wednesday as crises loom around the world.
She warned Moscow it would be “a strategic mistake” to invade Ukraine, following growing concerns over a big Russian troop build-up on the border.
This week, a panel of human rights lawyers and experts in London concluded Beijing had committed genocide by imposing population restrictions, including birth control and forced sterilisations, on the Uygurs.
China rejected the tribunal’s findings.
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Truss has said the West needs to work towards ending the “strategic dependence” of a growing number of low- and middle-income countries on its adversaries, in various areas from energy to technology.
At the summit she will push attendees to provide those countries with more finance for infrastructure and technology projects, according to the foreign office.
G7 countries and their allies must offer “an alternative to unsustainable debt from non-market economies” like China, it said.
Truss will unveil a UK-led initiative – the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator – to boost collaboration investing in Africa’s “most fragile markets” and help develop “a pipeline of investible opportunities”.
“It will help the G7 to meet its commitment to invest over US$80 billion into the private sector in Africa over the next five years to support sustainable economic recovery and growth,” the foreign office added.