As the host of the summit of the Group of Seven made up of the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan as well the European Union Johnson said it was “genuinely wonderful” to see everyone in person for the first major physical event since the pandemic last year.

‘Message of Hope’

UK PM Boris Johnson opened the Summit in Cornwall with a message for the world leaders to “learn lessons” from the pandemic and warned that it is vital not to repeat mistakes of the “the last big economic recession of 2008″ when the recovery was not uniform across all parts of society.

“I actually think that this is a meeting that genuinely needs to happen because we need to make sure we learn lessons from the pandemic. We need to make sure we don’t repeat some of the errors that we have made in the course of the last 18 months or so and we put in place what is needed to allow our economies to recover, Johnson said in his opening remarks. What’s gone wrong with this pandemic, what risks being a lasting scar, is the inequalities that have been entrenched. We need to make sure that as we recover, we level up across our societies we need to build back better,” he said.

Ease Supply of Raw Materials to India: France Ahead of G7

Ahead of the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron called for easing the supply of raw materials for the production of coronavirus vaccines to India and some other countries, saying such a step was absolutely necessary to ramp up manufacturing for their own requirement as well to help the African region.

At a press conference in Paris, Macron also favoured a proposal by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organisation for a temporary lift on the patents on COVID-19 vaccines and said France will raise the issue at the G7 summit.

He said France and South Africa will propose at the G7 summit that nations should work on exemptions for intellectual property rights, saying the patents must not create obstacles in boosting the production of the vaccines.

On easing the supply of raw materials for the vaccines, Macron keeping open the supply chains of the ingredients was key for boosting production of the vaccines.

“As we know, there have been export bans by several G7 member countries which have blocked production in other countries….I will take just one example, India,” he said.

“India, and in particular the Serum Institute of India, has been blocked in its production by export restrictions on the ingredients needed to produce these vaccines from certain G7 economies,” the French president said.

“These restrictions must be lifted both so that India can produce more for itself and so that it can very quickly supply the Africans in particular, who are very dependent on its production,” he said.

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