G7 works on global vaccine plan

G7 works on global vaccine plan

LONDON: The Group of Seven wealthy democracies yesterday worked on plans to scale up global COVID-19 vaccinations, as calls mounted for a drastic increase in funding to help developing nations virtually shut out of early efforts. Underscoring the challenges faced, the foreign minister of India-where Covid cases have soared in recent weeks-said he decided to participate in the London meeting virtually after potential exposure to the virus.

India was one of several nations invited by Britain for the first in-person G7 meeting since the pandemic began last year, in an effort to rally democracies in the face of a rising China and assertive Russia. Foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are setting the agenda for a G7 leaders’ summit next month in Cornwall, southern England, which will mark US President Joe Biden’s international debut as president.

The G7 opened its final day with a session focused on open societies before taking up COVID-19 as well as the fight against climate change. “A really valuable part of the G7 format is to think in the round-what do we need to do to help the most vulnerable countries around the world?” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told