Challenges posed by China to feature at G7 summit, White House suggests

The leaders of the G7 group of nations will demonstrate that they share a common approach to the challenges posed by China when they meet in Japan this week, the Biden administration has said.

Competition with China as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the transition to clean energy are expected to be under discussion at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, which runs from Friday to Sunday, the White House suggested. US president Joe Biden left Washington to attend the summit on Wednesday.

The G7 is composed of some of the world’s largest democracies and advanced economies – the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Canada and Italy.

US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told a press briefing the G7 leaders “will demonstrate that we share a common approach to the challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), an approach that is grounded in common values”.

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The White House said the summit would also showcase the flagship initiative of both Mr Biden and the G7 which is known as the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). This programme is set to provide $600 billion in loans and grants for sustainable, quality infrastructure projects in developing and emerging economies. In part the PGII project is aimed at regaining for western countries some of the influence which China gained, particularly in Africa and Asia, under its Belt and Road Initiative to promote development and investment across 150 countries.

Mr Kirby said the US saw the PGII as “a practical and useful and, quite frankly, more effective alternative to some of the infrastructure and investment programmes that other nations have been...trying to sell on the continent (of Africa). “And many nations on the continent are realising that those opportunities, those financial deals, are not necessarily all that they’re cracked up to be. And the PGII represents an alternative,” said Mr Kirby.

“Since the president spearheaded this at the last G7 we’ve already seen millions and millions and millions of dollars of investment into some of these lower- and middle-income countries on the continent and beyond. And so we’re looking forward to advancing that here at the G7.”

Mr Kirby also said that managing competition with and challenges presented by China, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, would “absolutely be on the agenda” for the G7.

“I think they’re going to talk about the broad scope of coercive activities by the PRC, and economics is certainly a part of that. But so will be the security coercion that – that we see coming out of the PRC, whether it’s in the East China Sea, whether it’s in Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea. All of that will be discussed.”

Mr Kirby also said that the US would seek at the summit to “rally around the need for bold action to accelerate the clean energy transition, including by making President Biden’s economic agenda a blueprint for G7 action to address the climate crisis and create good jobs”.