The G-7 proposes to strengthen cooperation on vaccines, climate change and taxation to get out of the pandemic

The leaders of the seven richest nations on the planet arrived this Friday in the British coastal region of Cornwall - Joe Biden went ahead, and landed in the United Kingdom a day before - with the feeling that this summit will be more relevant and less showcase than previous encounters. It is the first time they will see each other in person in almost two years, since the August 2019 meeting in Biarritz. In that interval, the world has been rocked by a pandemic that has left almost four million deaths in its wake. The preparatory documents for the meeting already use a term, the "Cornish consensus", as opposed to the "Washington consensus" that for three decades gave a free bar to multinationals in a globalized world while tightening the noose of financial orthodoxy to countries with more problems.

'Build Back Better'

(Rebuild better)

is the slogan chosen for a summit that wants to take advantage of the seismic upheaval caused by the coronavirus, and the new airs of collaboration that arrive from the other side of the Atlantic with the current US administration, to promote ideas and objectives that, in recent years, They had not gone beyond the academic realm or the politics of good intentions. "We are entering a period in which the dilemma between democracy and authoritarianism must be resolved," explained a senior official in the Biden Government in the hours before the Cornwall meeting. "We believe that we can show that we are united in our response, and thus prove that democracy and our shared values ​​are the best way to deliver results to our citizens and to rise to the current global challenges."Faced with the challenge of a power such as China, origin and rival in the crisis of the pandemic - and the priority obsession of the new occupant of the White House - the G-7 leaders have conspired to deny the "de-westernization" of the world that they denounced the 2020 Munich Security Conference and show that liberal democracies still have a lot to say.

During the opening speech of the summit, Boris Johnson told the rest of the heads of government and state: “What has gone wrong during this pandemic, and threatens to be a lasting scar, are all the inequalities that have entrenched themselves. We therefore need to ensure that, as we recover, we can balance that recovery across societies. We need to be able to rebuild better ”.

Deeds have preceded good words. The decision of the finance ministers, earlier this month in London, to promote a minimum corporate tax of "at least 15%", to finally put an end to the tax evasion of the technological giants, was the demonstration of that something has started. The commitment that the G-7 plans to announce in its conclusions on Sunday to distribute a billion vaccines among the poorest nations seeks to spread the message that the way out of the crisis must be joint and in solidarity. "Without any counterpart or requirement," Biden said Thursday from the town of St. Ives. "It is about our responsibility, our humanitarian obligation to save as many lives as possible," he continued,after recalling that the United States had already agreed to provide 5000 million of those doses for its part.

More information

• Biden sees his first trip to Europe as an opportunity to strengthen democracies against China and Russia

• The European Parliament denounces that only 0.3% of the doses of vaccines administered in the world went to the 29 poorest countries

The list of targets put forward by the G-7 is ambitious enough that the leaders gathered in Cornwall cannot afford to muddle through with a mere declaration of good intentions.

Namely: the fight against the pandemic;

a homogeneous response to the challenges posed by Russia or China;

the coordination of policies to achieve the desired economic recovery as soon as possible;

and a renewed drive to face the great global challenge whose urgency to respond has accelerated the coronavirus crisis: the fight against climate change.

Brexit in the world

The summit will also be the occasion for Boris Johnson to demonstrate that the United Kingdom after Brexit is a relevant player on the international scene. The prime minister has prepared everything to show the world the kindest side, the

soft power

British (soft power) that is still attractive to millions of people. And the best claim is still the House of Windsor. Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles of England and his wife, Camilla Parker Bowls, and the Dukes of Cambridge, William and Kate, offer their guests a special dinner and reception at the Eden Project this Friday, immense glass domes in the town of Bodelva which is home to the largest greenhouse tropical forest that exists. Grilled turbot from the Cornish coasts with local potatoes, pavlova cake with strawberries from England and local cheeses. A menu and an environment, the westernmost coast of the island, that belies any prejudice about British gastronomy or tourism.

Every face has its cross, and Johnson could not prevent some shadows from covering the match. Washington has wanted to warn the British Prime Minister, hours before Biden's arrival, that it expects a prompt resolution of the crisis in Northern Ireland, and has demanded the British politician's commitment to stability and peace in the area. France, Germany and the EU reach the summit with the undisguised irritation towards London, for the breach of an international treaty, the Irish Protocol, which took years of negotiation to be able to unravel Brexit. And the Parliament of Westminster, in a unanimous condemnation that was not more serious because the Government prevented the vote, has drawn the colors by reminding it that the United Kingdom will be the only G-7 country that has decided, in these exceptional historical circumstances,cut its budget aid to the countries most in need.