Gaza, Ukraine and AI on G7 summit agenda | BBC News

Gaza, Ukraine and AI on G7 summit agenda | BBC News

world leaders have arrived in southern Italy ahead of the 50th G7 leaders Summit the meeting brings together leaders of the world’s seven largest Advanced Economist to tackle some of the biggest issues top of the agenda this year will be the wars in Gaza and Ukraine our correspondent Mark loen is there for us Mark Martin thank you very much indeed yes hello and welcome to Southern Italy the region of Pula uh which is been which has been elevated for a couple of days to the center of diplomacy uh host to the G7 the meeting of the world’s most industrialized nations uh and the president this year is Italy uh now the meeting is actually happening about 80 km from where I’m speaking to you now we’re in the media area in B which is the capital of Pula but it uh the the the leaders have a much more glamorous location they are gathering at a gorgeous Sumptuous resort called Borgo enia which has played host to the wedding of Justin Timberlake and Jessica Beal it was a place of uh where Madonna used to Holiday and apparently the late Sean connory rather liked holidaying there as well and it is the place where leaders will tackle a huge array of uh pressing issues for the world from uh climate the climate crisis to Africa to migration to Ukraine to artificial intelligence a a session that will be personally attended by Pope Francis on Friday the first time that a pope will attend the G7 uh now in the last half hour or so uh the leaders have gathered for their traditional family photo uh as one big happy family of course uh the permanent members of the G7 uh posing under a an olive tree the leaders of uh uh the US France Germany Japan Canada Britain Italy and of course uh the presidents of the European commission and European Council as well who are joining them and the Striking thing really is uh you look at these pictures there are that so many of those smiling leaders are facing massive political problems back home Richie sunak of course uh leader of the UK could be on his way out languishing in the opinion polls before an upcoming election on the 4th of July Joe Biden facing electoral Wes potentially against Donald Trump uh in November uh there was that crushing electoral defeat for president mcon in France after the European elections on Sunday which saw him uh resoundingly defeated by the far right National rally and prompting parliamentary elections there in Germany Olaf Schultz uh was beaten into third place in those EU elections the worst ever result for him Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau behind in the opinion polls before next year’s election 2 and then the one stable stable place is the one that perhaps you might not expect to be so stable the country known for its political volatility that’s known almost 70 governments since the second world war Italy uh Georgia Malone boasting that she goes into this G7 as the strongest government of all and in the last half hour or so she has addressed the world leaders at the start of this Summit Italy uh decided to host the leader Summit in the region of this was not a coincidence we did this because apoia is a region of Southern Italy and the message we want to launch is a G7 which under Italian presidency wishes to strengthen its dialogue with the nations of the global South and we did this because uh this area has historically been a bridge between East and West Georgia Maloney basking in the Glorious Italian Sunshine but also of course in that victory in the EU elections on Sunday that saw a comprehensive win for her brothers of Italy party increasing their share of the vote in fact from national elections a couple of years ago so she is the only Western European leader to have emerged strengthened from the EU elections and so that is uh very much behind the um the confidence that is being exuded by Italy’s Prime Minister well looming large over this Summit is of course Ukraine and the uh leaders are expected to Greenlight a proposal which would see the interest on Frozen Russian in the west which total around about $300 billion being used to to as a loan for Ukraine so the interest on those assets would equal about $50 billion uh which could provide much needed fund to funds to uh to war weary and cash starved Ukraine uh the funds the the load uh coming against against the Frozen Russian assets which would be used as collateral so we are expecting that that will be approved at a G7 level uh and that will be a a hugely important deliver deliverable perhaps one of the few actual concrete deliverables we’re getting we will expect from this G7 uh this will all be of course very closely watched in Kev and Moscow for for the reaction a little earlier I spoke to our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg in Russia and Gene McKenzie in Kiev well president zilinski is not treating this as a done deal just yet just in the last few minutes he posted on his telegram channel that he was waiting for important decisions to take place later today but I think there is a sense of optimism because he also said that he was forever grateful to Ukraine’s partners for believing in Ukraine and believing in Ukraine’s Victory and this is a substantial part of money we’re talking about this $50 billion if you put that into context the most recent package that the aid package that the US Congress passed was just over 60 billion dollar now the idea is that Ukraine would be able to spend this money to relieve some of the financial pressures that it has been under what could it spend this money on well one expert I was speaking to was saying that the best thing that Ukraine could spend this money on would be defense might sound obvious but its own defense uh industry so uh particularly sort of joint uh defense production capabilities with other countries this idea being that Ukraine over time really wants to reduce its dependence on its Western allies for defense I was speaking to somebody just a little earlier who was campaigning for this to happen and they were saying look what they were actually hoping for was that Ukraine was going to get access to possibly this whole pot of money not just the interest payments or or even a slightly bigger chunk of it but they were accepting that look this is a really good first step even though they did make this point that when it comes to Western support for Ukraine it has always come in these rather incremental steps yeah I mean this this this mood this plan has come in different iterations actually there was an original plan to actually seize and liquidate those frozen Russian assets which uh was fiercely opposed by some cour in some quarters like Christine lard the president of the European Central Bank that had said that could set a dangerous precedent uh in International Financial law and so now the idea is that these uh the interests could be used for the loan instead uh Steve what’s the reaction if any uh likely to be uh in in Russia I mean I was reading that there were there was a warning from some Kremlin officials that that Russia also could seize Western assets the remaining Western assets in Russia well in fact uh not so long ago President Putin signed a decree uh that would make it possible for for Russia to seize the assets of um American individuals and companies uh in Russia uh not clear how that’s going to work but certainly the the expected green light that you talk about Mark uh has Russia seeing red um in in recent weeks Russian officials have spoken about this idea of taking the interest uh from its frozen assets as as theft uh so I think uh if this goes ahead the reaction will be uh pretty uh pretty negative from here it’s quite interesting actually the way uh the Russian media and Russian officials are looking at the the G7 uh meeting because on the one hand there’s a lot of Bluster they’re very dismissive they’re pointing at the the uh figures around the table and talking about how weak they are domestically the British prime minister uh the leaders of France and Germany after they’re droing in the European elections on the other hand clearly there is concern here that this Summit could lead to a tightening of uh International sanctions against Russia removing some of the loopholes to make it just that bit harder for Russia to finance and sustain uh the war effort Steve Rosenberg are Russia editor in Moscow and Gene McKenzie in Kiev and actually Vadim zilinsky the president of Ukraine is one of the invited leaders to this Summit because the G7 is often accused of being an exclusive club and uh you know there are external invitees every year to try to Broad reach a broader International consensus this year leaders from North Africa from the Middle East from South America coming here and also of course the president of Ukraine who has said that he will be pushing for uh quicker fighter fighter jet training for Ukrainian Pilots by by others and more long range weapons as well and already President Biden is saying that he will sign a long-term Security deal with Ukraine that could potentially out outlive a Donald Trump presidency maybe let’s see whether that is going to be the case uh so plenty to discuss and plenty to mull over with our diplomatic correspondent James Landell who is here with me now James nice to have you here uh a lot on this agenda uh not least of course Ukraine but also Africa with Italy trying to push for energy and infrastructure projects in Africa to try to stem migration and the Middle East of course the other War that’s hanging over this Summit what hope is there uh that the G7 can add diplomatic clout to the calls for a ceasefire where so many other forums are the calls are falling on deaf ears well what’s been fascinating is actually the G7 gave its support to the latest sort of Biden peace plan as we’re calling it in a statement actually last week along with lots of other International institutions and organizations to try and give some momentum to it in other words so that the leaders said we can’t wait until this Summit we have to demonstrate our support before that so they’ve issued that statement they’ll say something similar here today the problem is they’re not going to solve this problem right now but what I think they’re trying to they will try to do is once again just put as much pressure as they possibly can on the Israeli government and Hamas to shift their position so that they can reach some kind of agreement this will just be another rat up of the international pressure thus far that International pressure has largely fallen on their fears but I think what the Americans even want to do is to sort of show the rest of the world that it’s not just them that’s trying to put pressure on the Israelis others will will too I mean if you want Benjamin Netanyahu you’re looking at this club of of leaders who are facing a myriad of political woes back home and you might be thinking well we might be we might have a Donald Trump White House in November which be much more meable to us we might have Emanuel mcon fatally weakened by these parliamentary elections so that might actually you know embolden embolden Israel politically at the moment yeah I mean that is the fundamental problem and question mark That’s hanging over the whole of this Summit at the moment is as you say the Electoral fragility of quite a few of the leaders who are here but that said as you said earlier the G7 isn’t completely you know futile a lot of other world leaders are here too you’ve got leaders from India you’ve got leaders from the Gulf you’ve got leaders from South America who all come here because they know that these seven countries plus the EU have a combined economic weight and clout that can make differences so for example on Ukraine this idea of using Russian assets this idea of expanding existing sanctions ultimately that is a great test of the combined economic weight of the G7 and the EU together and it’s going to be fascinating to see how far they go down that route to see what impact they can have CU we’re at that stage now where we’re beginning to see the limits of the g7’s physical power I don’t think we’re quite there yet but we will see a bit of it in the next couple of days I know you’ll be watching the mood music as well for possible the last International Harrah of Rishi sunak the British leader before the fourth July I think we could say with confidence is probably the last time he’ll be on the world stage during the campaign uh it was very noticeable actually when you we were all watching the leaders come in and be welcomed by Georgia Maloney the uh the Italian Prime Minister you know they get on really well Mr sunak and and they were they there was a lot of physical chemistry going on there if you look at the body language was slightly more stiff with the other leaders so look you know he has an ally here uh and um you know they they share similar instincts on a lot of the issues about migration and things like that but as you say um certainly the last time we’ll see him out on the world stage during the campaign James landel our diplomatic correspondent thanks very much indeed yeah so possibly the last International Summit for Rishi tunak let’s see whether that happens on the 4th of July uh but also a the domestic political situation in so many of these G7 countries that will I think will be front and center of this Summit here in pulia we’ll continue to watch all the twists and turns but for now I’ll hand you back to Martine in London mark thank you very much Mark Len

Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni has welcomed leaders of the world’s seven richest nations at the G7 summit in Italy.

The members – Canada, France Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States – meet throughout the year to discuss global events, with one set-piece summit a year.

They are expected to discuss a number of issues, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

The group cannot pass laws – but some of their past decisions have had global effects, including backing a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies.

This year, the summit is expected to agree a plan to use frozen Russian assets to raise billions of dollars for Ukraine.

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