The G-7 summit held in Hiroshima this weekend has been an appointment of high political relevance. The group of large advanced democracies have issued their messages, especially directed at China, Russia and the global south. On the most relevant elements, the consensus positioning is one that is much closer to EU approaches than to those that had momentum in Washington until recently.
As for China, the conclusions have sent a strong message to Beijing, much harsher than in other summits, but firmly anchored in the conceptual territory of reducing risks, an idea sponsored by the EU, and far from the decoupling that was in vogue in the US and until recently.
As for Russia, the final statement points to a new twist in the restriction of exports to the country led by Vladimir Putin, but nothing like the generalized ban with some exceptions that Washington promoted last April, according to Bloomberg. The European partners – and also Japan – were opposed, and the agreement has remained in an expansion of restrictions, but much less a dry cut with sectoral exceptions. On the other hand, Washington's turn in terms of F-16 for Ukraine also responds to pressure from European countries.
As for the global south, European sources pointed out that a consensus has been established around the idea that, in the relationship with this heterogeneous group of countries, it is better to choose to seek harmony within the framework of respect for UN principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. instead of stepping on the accelerator in the rhetoric of the democratic front opposed to territorial regimes, also widely used on the other side of the Atlantic.
These elements do not prevent Washington from continuing to press to rebalance different chapters in the direction of its preference, nor from remaining areas of serious friction between the US and the EU, such as those motivated by industrial protectionism in the green sector of the White House.
On the other hand, within the EU itself there are different sensitivities, and some countries, especially on the eastern flank, agree more with many of Washington's positions than with the majority approaches in the Union.
But the G7 has shown a clear will of the Seven to be cohesive before the world and that consensus has landed in a place very close to the guidelines of the EU on the main issues.
China's economic coercion
The case of China is perhaps the most obvious. The conclusions have strongly criticized Beijing for its practices of economic coercion through which, according to the partners, it seeks to interfere in the sovereignty of others or for the militarization of disputed waters. The group has activated mechanisms to counter such coercive practices or to better control exports and investments to that country. There is enough for China to react angrily to the steps taken by the G-7.
But the document has crystallized the idea, very European, that, although there is no longer room for naivety before Beijing, this has to be a surgical process. A pragmatic and studied action to reduce the risks, both those linked to China's excessive manufacturing dependence, which can expose it to blackmail, and those connected with the possibility that China uses Western technologies for hostile or threatening advances. But not a decoupling maneuver, a word that until recently was on its way to becoming a mantra in a U.S. Congress in which firmness on China seems to have become the only bipartisan consensus.
As for Russia's war in Ukraine, the opening of the way to deliver the F-16 to Kiev responds to a long period of pressure from several European countries, including some in the EU that have these aircraft and seem willing to hand them over – such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium – others that do not. like France, and others outside the EU, like the UK.
The G-7 was, for a period, a blurred organism. The loss of relative weight due to the rise of emerging powers was shrinking in relevance. The crisis of 2008 gave way to the rise of the importance of the G-20.
Now, the challenge to the international order embodied by the invasion of Ukraine and the growing tension between advanced democracies and China has once again given it a clear raison d'être. This year, the conclusions of the partners have given rise to a consensus very close to the European starting positions. Time will tell if this roadmap will be maintained and it will be successful, on that basis, the attempt to connect with emerging countries that has been attempted.
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