Covid-19: G7 leaders convene summit drive for billion jabs

Covid-19: G7 leaders convene summit drive for billion jabs

G7 leaders were greeted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Friday after opening their first in-person talks in nearly two years, touting an expected pledge to donate one billion Covid vaccine doses to poor countries in a show of revived Western democratic unity. The club of leading economies “” Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and United States “” say a joint approach is the world's best chance for recovering from the global health crisis, and tackling climate change. Welcomed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the beachside summit venue in Carbis Bay, southwest England, the leaders posed for a family photo before opening their first session of talks on "building back better“ after the pandemic. Later Friday, the queen, 95, heir to the throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met the G7 leaders at a reception at Cornwall's Eden Project, an exhibition that showcases the world's ecological riches. The three-day G7 meeting presents a "huge opportunity“ for global recovery after Covid-19, Johnson told his fellow leaders in opening remarks earlier, as they sat socially distanced and without masks at a round table. The summit will focus, he said, on "building