President Joe Biden and Western allies opened a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday intent on keeping economic fallout from the war in Ukraine from fracturing the global coalition working to punish Russia’s aggression. Britain’s Boris Johnson warned the leaders not to give in to “fatigue” even as Russia lobbed new missiles at Kyiv. The Group of Seven leaders were set to announce new bans on imports of Russian gold, the latest in a series of sanctions the club of democracies hopes will further isolate Russia economically. They also were looking at possible price caps on energy meant to limit Russian oil and gas profits that Moscow can pump into its war effort. And following up on a proposal from last year's G-7 summit, Biden formally launched a global infrastructure partnership designed to counter China’s influence in the developing world. The initiative aims to leverage $600 billion with fellow G-7 countries by 2027 for global infrastructure projects. Some $200 billion would come from the United States, Biden said. U.S. officials have long argued that China's infrastructure initiative traps receiving countries in debt and that the investments benefit China more than their hosts. In a pre-summit show of force, Russia launched its first missile strikes against the Ukrainian capital in three weeks, striking at least two residential buildings, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Read:G-7 to ban Russian gold in response to Ukraine war: Biden Biden condemned Russia’s actions as “more of their barbarism,” and stressed that allies need to remain firm even as the economic reverberations from the war take a toll around the globe in inflation, food shortages and more. “We have to stay together, because Putin has been counting on, from the beginning, that somehow NATO and the G-7 would splinter, but we haven’t and we’re not going to,” Biden said during a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who holds the G-7′s rotating presidency and is hosting the gathering. As the G-7 leaders sat down for their opening session, they took a light-hearted jab at Putin. Johnson could be heard asking whether he should keep his jacket on, adding, “We all have to show that we’re tougher than Putin.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau chimed in: “A bare-chested horseback ride.” Over the years, the Kremlin has released several photos of the Russian leader in which he appears shirtless. Biden and his counterparts were using the gathering to discuss how to secure energy supplies and tackle inflation triggered by the war’s fallout. The leaders also came together on the new global infrastructure partnership meant to provide an alternative to Russian and Chinese investment in the developing world. One by one, the leaders stepped up to the microphone to discuss the partnership and their roles in it — without mentioning China by name. Ukraine cast a shadow over the gathering, but the leaders were determined to project resolve. Scholz told Biden that the allies all managed "to stay united, which obviously Putin never expected.” Biden said of Putin's war: “We can’t let this aggression take the form it has and get away with it." Scholz, who has faced criticism at home and abroad for perceived reluctance to send Ukraine heavy weapons, said, “Germany and the U.S. will always act together when it comes to questions of Ukraine’s security.” Johnson, for his part, urged fellow leaders not to give in to “fatigue.” He has expressed concern that divisions may emerge in the pro-Ukraine alliance as the four-month-old war grinds on. Asked whether he thought France and Germany were doing enough, Johnson praised the “huge strides” made by Germany to arm Ukraine and cut imports of Russian gas. He did not mention France. Read: Russia strikes Kyiv as Western leaders meet in Europe Biden and Scholz, in their pre-summit meeting, agreed on the need for a negotiated end to the Ukraine war, but did not get into specifics on how to achieve it, said a senior Biden administration official, who requested anonymity to reveal details of a private conversation. However, they did not have an extensive discussion about oil price caps or inflation, the official said. Other leaders echoed Biden’s praise of coalition unity. The head of the European Union’s council of governments said the 27-member bloc maintains “unwavering unity” in backing Ukraine against Russia’s invasion with money and political support, but that “Ukraine needs more and we are committed to providing more.” European Council President Charles Michel said EU governments were ready to supply “more military support, more financial means, and more political support” to enable Ukraine to defend itself and “curb Russia’s ability to wage war.” The EU has imposed six rounds of sanctions against Russia, the latest one being a ban on 90% of Russian crude oil imports by the end of the year. The measure is aimed at a pillar of the Kremlin’s finances, its oil and gas revenues. Biden and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, plus the EU, spent Sunday in both formal and informal settings discussing the war’s effects on the global economy, including inflation. Biden said G-7 nations, including the United States, will ban imports of gold from Russia. A formal announcement was expected Tuesday as the leaders wind up their annual summit. Johnson said the ban will “directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine.” “Putin is squandering his dwindling resources on this pointless and barbaric war. He is bankrolling his ego at the expense of both the Ukrainian and Russian people,” Johnson said. “We need to starve the Putin regime of its funding.” Gold, in recent years, has been the top Russian export after energy — reaching almost $19 billion or about 5% of global gold exports, in 2020, according to the White House. Of Russian gold exports, 90% was consigned to G-7 countries. More than 90% of those exports, or nearly $17 billion, was exported to the U.K. The United States imported less than $200 million in gold from Russia in 2019, and under $1 million in 2020 and 2021. As for the idea of price caps on energy, Michel said, “we want to go into the details, we want to fine-tune ... to make sure we have a clear common understanding of what are the direct effects and what could be the collateral consequences” if such a step were to be taken by the group.

Two months ago, the leaders of the world’s seven major industrialized democracies met in summer sunshine on England’s southwest coast. It was a happy occasion: the first in-person summit of the Group of Seven nations in two years due to the coronavirus pandemic and the welcomed appearance of President Joe Biden and his “America is back” message on matters ranging from comity to COVID-19 to climate change. On Tuesday, those same seven leaders will meet again in virtual format confronted by a resurgence in the pandemic, more dire news on climate change and, most immediately and perhaps importantly, Afghanistan. The country’s burgeoning refugee crisis, the collapse of its government and fears of a resurgence in Afghan-based terrorism have left the G-7 allies scrambling and threaten the unity of the bloc. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the host of the June summit in the English resort of Carbis Bay, is now reconvening the leaders for crisis talks on Afghanistan amid widespread unhappiness about Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Complaints have come from Britain, France, Germany and others in the G-7, which includes only one non-NATO member, Japan. Despite Biden’s April announcement that the U.S. would completely withdraw from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the central Asian nation was almost an afterthought when the G-7 met in June. Read: Biden says US-led evacuation from Kabul is accelerating COVID-19, China and climate change dominated the agenda. And expectations for Biden’s impending summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin were at the top of people’s tongues. The leaders put Afghanistan as number 57 out of 70 points in their final 25-page communique -– behind Ukraine, Belarus and Ethiopia. Afghanistan didn’t even feature in the one-and-a-half page summary of the document. NATO had already signed off on the U.S. withdrawal and all that appeared to be left was the completion of an orderly withdrawal and hopes for a peace deal between the Afghan government and Taliban. “We call on all Afghan parties to reduce violence and agree on steps that enable the successful implementation of a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire and to engage fully with the peace process. In Afghanistan, a sustainable, inclusive political settlement is the only way to achieve a just and durable peace that benefits all Afghans,” the leaders said, without a hint of urgency. The leaders said they were determined “to help the people of Afghanistan, including women, young people and minority groups, as they seek to preserve hard-won rights and freedoms,” they said. But as summer swings into fall, those hopes have been dashed. Johnson and others, including French President Emmanuel Macron, are pushing Biden to extend his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces in order to ensure the evacuation of all foreign nationals as well as Afghans who worked for or otherwise supported the American-led NATO operation that vanquished the Taliban in 2001 and has now accepted defeat. Read:Biden vows to evacuate all Americans — and Afghan helpers On the eve of the meeting, the White House said Biden and Johnson had spoken by phone and discussed “the importance of close coordination with allies and partners in managing the current situation and forging a common approach to Afghanistan policy.” Johnson’s office said the two leaders “agreed to continue working together to ensure those who are eligible to leave are able to, including after the initial phase of the evacuation has ended.” Biden administration officials have refused to be pinned down about whether an extension is likely or even possible given the Taliban’s demand that all U.S. forces leave by the Aug. 31 deadline. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she expected questions about the Afghanistan evacuation timeline to be part the G-7 meeting. Psaki would not predict any announcements from the meeting but said the focus would be to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies as quickly as possible. White House aides have said they think the meeting could grow contentious, as U.S. allies have looked on with disapproval at the tumultuous American drawdown. Senior British military officers have expressed anger over the U.S. pullout, saying it exposes the hollowness of the trans-Atlantic “special relationship” — a phrase used since World War II to stress the bonds of history, friendship and shared diplomatic interests between London and Washington. Read:Defiant Biden is face of chaotic Afghan evacuation And the German government is expressing impatience with the pace of the evacuation effort. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the majority of local staff who worked for his country in Afghanistan haven’t yet been gotten out and called Tuesday’s G-7 meeting “very important” for discussing international access to the Kabul airport beyond Aug. 31. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, who has called the U.S. deal with the Taliban that set the deadline a “mistake,” was downbeat about the prospects of an extension to the evacuation effort. “I think it is unlikely,” he told Sky News. “Not only because of what the Taliban has said but if you look at the public statements of President Biden I think it is unlikely. “It is definitely worth us all trying, and we will.”

Neck rubs, pricy dinners, allegations of phone tapping, awkward handshake moments. Angela Merkel has just about seen it all when it comes to U.S. presidents. The German chancellor is making her 19th and likely final official visit to the U.S. on Thursday for a meeting with President Joe Biden — her fourth American president — as she nears the end of her 16-year tenure. Merkel, who turns 67 on Saturday, will be heading into political retirement soon after deciding long ago not to seek a fifth term in Germany’s Sept. 26 election. Read: Biden backs Trump rejection of China’s South China Sea claim One of the longest-serving leaders of one of the closest U.S. allies, Merkel is set for a warm welcome when she meets Biden during her first visit to Washington since he took office in January. Still, contentious issues are on the table — notably the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany, which the U.S. has long opposed, and Biden’s efforts to convince European allies to drop objections to intellectual property waivers for sharing COVID-19 vaccines with the developing world. It’s a fitting coda for Merkel’s dealings with American leaders. A look at some of the highs and lows over the years: GEORGE W. BUSH Merkel came to power early in Bush’s second term and set about repairing relations chilled by predecessor Gerhard Schroeder’s vocal opposition to the war in Iraq. She quickly became a close ally, perhaps finding that the way to the president’s heart was through his stomach. During a visit to Merkel’s parliamentary constituency in northeastern Germany in July 2006, Bush couldn’t stop talking about a wild boar roast the chancellor laid on for him. At a Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, a few days later, Bush gave Merkel an impromptu neck-and-shoulder rub that quickly spread across the internet. Merkel hunched her shoulders in surprise, threw her arms up and grimaced, but appeared to smile as Bush walked away. When Merkel visited the White House the following January, Bush promised: “No back rubs.” In November 2007, Bush welcomed Merkel to his Crawford, Texas ranch. “In Texas, when you invite somebody to your home, it’s an expression of warmth and respect and that’s how I feel about Chancellor Merkel,” a jeans-clad Bush said as he greeted Merkel at the property’s helipad and drove her in his pickup to his home. BARACK OBAMA Merkel’s relationship with Obama didn’t have the greatest start. In July 2008, the chancellor squashed the idea of candidate Obama delivering a speech at Berlin’s signature Brandenburg Gate, saying it was a backdrop for speeches by presidents. Obama switched to another Berlin landmark, the Victory Column. Still, the chancellor — who shared Obama’s businesslike manner but, unlike the new president, never had much time for soaring political rhetoric — forged a strong working relationship with him. It appeared to gain personal warmth over time. During Merkel’s 2011 visit to Washington, the two leaders caught dinner at a high-end restaurant, an unusual overture by Obama. A few days later, he hosted Merkel at the White House for a formal state dinner, where he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. honor bestowed upon civilians. Obama got his chance to speak at the Brandenburg Gate in June 2013. Merkel was there to introduce him. Read:Merkel: Europe ‘on thin ice’ amid delta virus variant rise A tough test followed with reports later that year that the U.S. National Security Agency had listened in on German government phones, including Merkel’s. Merkel declared that “spying among friends” was unacceptable. But she didn’t let it cast a lasting shadow over trans-Atlantic ties. Obama made a last visit as president in November 2016, dining with Merkel at his Berlin hotel. He was back as ex-president a few months later, participating in a public discussion with Merkel and calling her “one of my favorite partners throughout my presidency.” DONALD TRUMP Merkel’s congratulations to Trump after his 2016 election set the tone for much that followed. In a pointed message, she offered “close cooperation” on the basis of shared trans-Atlantic values that she said include respect for human dignity regardless of people’s origin, gender or religion. The former physicist and the former reality TV star were never an obvious personal match but generally kept up appearances when in public together. Merkel’s first visit to the Trump White House in March 2017 produced a famously awkward moment in the Oval Office. Photographers shouted “handshake!” and Merkel quietly asked Trump “do you want to have a handshake?” There was no response from the president, who looked ahead with his hands clasped. Trump never made a bilateral visit to Germany in four years in office, though he did come for the Merkel-hosted Group of 20 summit in Hamburg in 2017. At the 2018 Group of Seven summit in Canada, Merkel’s office released a photo of her leaning on a table in front of Trump, surrounded by other apparently frustrated allied leaders. Merkel’s Germany was a favorite target of Trump’s ire. The president called the NATO ally “delinquent” for failing to spend enough on defense and announced that he was going to pull out about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops stationed in Germany. Merkel suggested in 2017 that Europe could no longer entirely rely on the U.S. And, speaking at Harvard University in 2019, she said a new generation of leaders must “tear down walls of ignorance” and reject isolationism to overcome global problems. JOE BIDEN Merkel greeted Biden’s 2020 election with barely disguised relief, saying he brought decades of experience to the job, that “he knows Germany and Europe well” and citing good memories of previous meetings. In February, she welcomed his first address to a global audience effusively. “Things are looking a great deal better for multilateralism this year than two years ago, and that has a lot to do with Joe Biden having become the president of the United States,” Merkel said. Read: German election year opens with tough test for Merkel party As vice president, Biden had a rapport with Merkel during the Obama presidency, but the two were never particularly close. Seeking to strengthen ties, Biden made a priority of engaging with Merkel in several early videoconference meetings shortly after taking office. He also waived sanctions on the company behind the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, even as he reiterated his preference that Germany abandon the project. Since Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, there hasn’t been much opportunity for in-person interaction. Both attended last month’s G-7 summit in England and NATO summit in Brussels, but Thursday will be their first significant bilateral meeting. Merkel will be the first European leader to visit the White House in the Biden administration.

India Sunday signed off on a joint statement by G-7 and guest countries on “open societies” that reaffirm and encourage the values of “freedom of expression, both online and offline, as a freedom that safeguards democracy and helps people live free from fear and oppression”, reports The Indian Express. The statement also refers to “politically motivated internet shutdowns” as one of the threats to freedom and democracy. The ‘Open Societies Statement’ was adopted at the end of an outreach session titled ‘Building Back Together—Open Societies and Economies’, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited as a lead speaker. Read:G7 must ensure vaccine access in developing countries: UN experts Participating through video-conference, Modi said that “democracy and freedom were a part of India’s civilisational ethos”. However, he “shared the concern” expressed by several leaders that “open societies are particularly vulnerable to disinformation and cyber-attacks”. According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Modi also stressed on the need to ensure that “cyberspace remains an avenue for advancing democratic values and not of subverting it”. The joint statement was signed by the G-7 countries, and India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa, with host British Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling them “Democracies 11”. While the statement is directed at China and Russia, India has been under scrutiny over Internet curbs in Jammu and Kashmir even as the Government is locked in a face-off over its new IT rules with tech giants such as Twitter, which described a police search at its offices in India last month as a “potential threat to freedom of expression”. The joint statement at G-7 said: “We are at a critical juncture, facing threats to freedom and democracy from rising authoritarianism, electoral interference, corruption, economic coercion, manipulation of information, including disinformation, online harms and cyber attacks, politically motivated internet shutdowns, human rights violations and abuses, terrorism and violent extremism.” It is learnt that New Delhi signed off on the statement after making its reservations known to the negotiators from G-7 countries. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who had participated in the G-7 Foreign Ministers meeting in May, had said that “open societies and personal freedoms require careful nurturing. Must be on guard against fake news and digital manipulation.” However, Indian government sources said that India doesn’t have any reservations on the final joint statement. “We have signed off on it,” a source said. Sources also pointed out that while the the statement is directed at China and Russia, the situation in India was not discussed at the G-7 meeting. Read:G-7 leaders agree on vaccines, China and taxing corporations The “open societies” statement also affirmed “human rights for all, both online and offline, as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments, and opposition to any form of discrimination, so that everyone can participate fully and equally in society”. It said that democracy includes “each citizen’s right to vote in free and fair elections and everyone’s right to assemble, organise and associate peacefully, within a system of accountable and transparent governance”. It also committed to “strengthen open societies globally by protecting civic space and media freedom, promoting freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom of religion or belief, and by tackling all forms of discrimination, including racism.” For India, these are important commitments amid global concern over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that was cleared by Parliament in 2019. Another G-7 statement — not signed by India and other outreach countries — hit out at China on “human rights and fundamental freedoms” in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and the unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the South China Sea. It also called for a transparent and timely WHO Covid origins study in China. On the second day of the outreach sessions, Modi also took part in another session titled ‘Building Back Greener: Climate and Nature’. Highlighting the non-democratic and unequal nature of global governance institutions, he called for the reform of the multilateral system as the best signal of commitment to the cause of Open Societies, the PMO said. In the session on climate change, the Prime Minister highlighted that the planet’s atmosphere, biodiversity and oceans cannot be protected by countries acting in silos, and called for collective action on climate change. Read: As summit ends, G-7 urged to deliver on vaccines, climate Speaking about India’s “unwavering commitment” to climate action, he mentioned the commitment by Railways to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2030. He stressed that India is the only G-20 country on track to meet its Paris commitments. Modi also took note of the increasing effectiveness of the two major global initiatives nurtured by India — the CDRI and International Solar Alliance. The Prime Minister stressed that developing countries need better access to climate finance, and called for a holistic approach towards climate change that covers mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer, climate financing, equity, climate justice and lifestyle change.

President Joe Biden has vowed to mend America’s trade relations with its European allies, which were stretched to the breaking point by President Donald Trump’s mercurial behavior, combative policies and aversion to multinational alliances. Yet when he meets Tuesday with European Union leaders in Brussels, Biden may find that making up is hard to do. The prospect of forging an accord to resolve their differences — and perhaps form a united front against an increasingly confrontational China — may be stymied by European skepticism. Sounding a sour note about Biden’s intentions, Valdis Dombrovskis, a Latvian political leader who serves as the European Union’s trade chief, said in speech last week that the time had come “for the U.S. to walk the talk.” Dombrovskis was referring in part to Trump’s 2018 decision to impose import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum — a decision that left European leaders furious and triggered retaliatory steps against the United States. Biden has been slow to take up the possibility of dropping the tariffs, which Trump had imposed on the basis of “national security.” Read:OPEC to boost oil output as economies recover, prices rise Asked about the tariffs during a news conference Sunday as he wrapped up his time at the Group of Seven summit in the U.K., Biden pleaded for patience with his young administration, saying, “A hundred and twenty days. Give me a break. Need time.” And with trade tensions still shading the trans-Atlantic relationship, the EU may also prove reluctant to join a U.S.-led effort to confront China over its provocative trade policies. Then there’s a longstanding dispute over how much of a government subsidy each side unfairly provides for its aircraft manufacturing giant — Boeing in the United States and Airbus in the EU. “This has been going on for 17 years,” says Cecilia Malmström, a veteran of trans-Atlantic battles as the European trade commissioner from 2014 to 2019. All that said, U.S.-EU relations are still certain to be much friendlier than they were under Trump, who regularly accused the Europeans of shirking their responsibility to pay for their own defense through NATO and of exploiting what he called unfair trade deals to sell far more products to the United States than they buy. In a goodwill gesture in March, the Biden administration and the EU did agree to suspend the tariffs they had imposed on each other in the Airbus-Boeing battle. Several news outlets have reported that U.S. and EU diplomats are working on a draft communique that would call for the Boeing-Airbus dispute to be resolved by July 11 and for the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs — and the EU’s retaliatory sanctions — to be lifted by Dec. 1. Read:Biden directs US to mitigate financial risk from climate The Biden administration also announced Friday that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo would be joining the U.S. delegation; her department administers the steel and aluminum tariffs. Kelly Ann Shaw, a former Trump administration trade official who is now a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, suggested that the EU and U.S. are eager to move past their tariff battles “so they can move on and tackle some 21st century challenges, not the least of which is China.” Last week, though, Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, sounded noncommittal in speaking with reporters on Air Force One. “There has been good progress in those negotiations,” Sullivan said of the Boeing-Airbus dispute. “But I’m making no promises about what might happen.” Regarding the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, Sullivan noted that the EU agreed last month to suspend plans to escalate retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products — a concession meant to ease tensions and encourage further negotiations. But he added: “That’s going to take some time to work out.” Asked specifically whether the United States would be rolling back the metals tariffs, Sullivan shook his head. Read:Ji'nan to hold ‘Dialogue Sessions of 2021 for Executives from Multinational Corporations (Ji'nan) & China-Japan Industrial Innovation and Development Exchange Conference’ The steel and aluminum dispute is an especially sensitive one. In moving to tax imported metals, Trump dusted off a little-used weapon in U.S. trade policy to justify the tariffs: He declared the foreign metals to be a threat to U.S. national security — a decision that startled and outraged Europeans and other longstanding American allies. “Almost all the EU members were NATO members,” said Malmström, now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “How could we be a national security threat? It was offensive.” Malmström said she was surprised that Biden hasn’t already dropped the tariffs and hopes he will do so at the summit Tuesday. “Maybe he’s saving this as a gift,” she said. Complicating the political calculus for Biden is that U.S. labor unions and steel and aluminum producers — some of them concentrated in states important to Democratic election prospects — want to maintain the tariffs on the imported metals to help keep prices up. A key reason is that China, which churns out more than half the world’s steel, has contributed to an oversupply that has otherwise kept global prices down. Demonstrating a united U.S.-EU challenge to China’s aggressive policies could strengthen the trans-Atlantic negotiating leverage. But Malmström said she is skeptical about whether the EU is eager to join the United States to face up to China and force a reckoning over its trade practices. Read:Apple brings CEO Tim Cook to court in defense of app store The Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs on $360 billion of Chinese goods came against the backdrop of a roiling conflict over the predatory tactics that China is widely accused of deploying to try to supplant America’s global technological dominance. Many trade experts say Beijing has coerced American companies to hand over trade secrets as the price of access to its market, forced U.S. businesses to license technology in China on unfavorable terms, used state funds to buy up American technology and committed outright theft. Critics, including Biden, had lambasted Trump for alienating would-be allies like the EU instead of enlisting them to help challenge Beijing. For now, though, Biden hasn’t called off Trump’s trade war against China. Malmström noted that among the EU’s 27 member countries, “there is no full unanimity on how to deal with China.” She suggested that the EU might go along with the United States on specific measures — perhaps cracking down on Beijing’s subsidies to its own companies, for example — but still stop short of joining the United States in any wide-ranging confrontation with China. “The EU will not just sign up to a U.S. agenda on the bottom line,” she said. “The EU is not in trade war mode against anyone.’’

President Joe Biden makes his entrance at a NATO summit aiming to consult European allies on efforts to counter provocative actions by China and Russia while highlighting the U.S. commitment to the 30-country alliance that was frequently maligned by predecessor Donald Trump. The summit Monday comes as Biden tries to rally allies for greater coordination in checking China and Russia, two adversaries whose actions on economic and national security fronts have become the chief foreign policy concerns in the early going of the Biden presidency. Biden will use his time at the summit to underscore the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the alliance charter, which spells out that an attack on one member is an attack on all and is to be met with a collective response. “I will make it clear that the United States’ commitment to our NATO alliance and Article 5 is rock solid,” Biden told U.S. troops in the United Kingdom last week on the first stop of his eight-day European trip. “It’s a sacred obligation.” Read:As COVID-19 cases wane, vaccine-lagging in USA still see risk The White House said the communique to be signed by alliance members at the end of the NATO summit is expected to include language about updating Article 5 to include major cyber attacks — a matter of growing concern amid a series of hacks targeting the U.S. government and businesses around the globe by Russia-based hackers. The update will spell out that if an alliance member needs technical or intelligence support in response to a cyber attack, it would be able to invoke the mutual defense provision to receive assistance, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The president will begin his day meeting with leaders of the Baltic states on NATO’s eastern flank regarding the “threat posed by Russia,” China and the recent air piracy in Belarus, according to Sullivan. He’ll also meet with NATO secretary Jens Stoltenberg. Biden’s itinerary in Europe has been shaped so that he would first gather with Group of Seven leaders for a three-day summit on the craggy shores of Cornwall and then with NATO allies in Brussels before his much-anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday. At the G-7, leaders sought to convey that the club of wealthy democracies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China and Russia. The G-7 meeting ended with a communique that called out forced labor practices and other human rights violations impacting Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the western Xinjiang province. The president declined to discuss private summit negotiations over the provision, but said he was “satisfied” with the communique, although differences remain among the allies about how forcefully to call out Beijing. Biden is focused on building a more cohesive bond between America and allies who had become wary of U.S. leadership after enduring four years of Trump’s name-calling and frequent invectives about the relevance of multilateral alliances like NATO. The last administration was at odds with some leading NATO members, including Britain, Germany and France, over Trump’s 2018 decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement that was brokered during the Obama administration. The accord limited Iran’s uranium enrichment program in exchange for an easing of sanctions. Read:NATO leaders bid symbolic adieu to Afghanistan at summit Trump and other critics felt the deal gave Tehran too many economic benefits without doing enough to prevent Iran from eventually developing a nuclear weapon. The Biden administration is now seeking a path to resurrecting the accord. Trump also complained that the NATO alliance allows “global freeloading” countries to spend less on military defense at the expense of the U.S. and dismissed the alliance as “obsolete.” Biden offered a pointed rejoinder on Sunday, saying: “We do not view NATO as a sort of a protection racket. We believe that NATO is vital to our ability to maintain American security for ... the remainder of the century. And there’s a real enthusiasm.” When alliance members last met for a summit in England in December 2019, Trump grabbed headlines by calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “two-faced” and French President Emanuel Macron “nasty.” Trump lashed out after Trudeau was caught on a hot mic gossiping with other leaders about Trump turning photo opportunities into long news conferences. Ahead of the summit, Macron had declared NATO “brain dead” because of a void in U.S. leadership under Trump. Biden has already acknowledged during his Europe tour that the alliance needs to ensure better burden sharing and needs stepped up American leadership. He’s also highlighted NATO members’ contributions in the war in Afghanistan. The U.S. and the alliance are winding down their involvement in the nearly 20-year war that killed tens of thousands of Afghans and more than 3,500 U.S. and allied troops, while raising profound questions about whether NATO’s most ambitious effort was worth it. The military effort followed the 2001 arrival of a U.S.-led coalition that ousted the Taliban for harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. For now, NATO plans to leave civilian advisers to help build up government institutions. It’s unclear who will protect them. The alliance is also weighing whether to train Afghan special forces outside the country. Read: As summit ends, G-7 urged to deliver on vaccines, climate NATO members are also expected to endorse the creation of a new cyber defense policy to improve coordination with countries impacted by the increasing frequency of ransomware attacks, a climate security action plan to reduce greenhouse gases from military activities in line with national commitments under the Paris Agreement and a commitment to strengthen NATO’s deterrence to meet threats from Russia and elsewhere, according to the White House. Biden will also meet with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday on the sidelines of the summit. The two leaders were expected to discuss Syria and Iran as well as what role Turkey can play on Afghanistan following the U.S. troop withdrawal, according to the White House. Also on the agenda: how Washington and Ankara “deal with some of our significant differences on values and human rights and other issues,” Sullivan said. The unsettled security situation in Libya, as well as overlapping concerns on China and Russia are also expected to be discussed.

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations staked their claim Sunday to leading the world out of the coronavirus pandemic and crisis, pledging more than 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer nations, vowing to help developing countries grow while fighting climate change and backing a minimum tax on multinational firms. At the group’s first face-to-face meeting in two years, the leaders dangled promises of support for global health, green energy, infrastructure and education — all to demonstrate that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. During their three-day summit in southwest England, the G-7 leaders wanted to convey that the club of wealthy democracies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. “This isn’t about imposing our values on the rest of the world,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters at the end of the seaside summit on the rugged Cornwall coast. “What we as the G-7 need to do is demonstrate the benefits of democracy and freedom and human rights to the rest of the world.” U.S. President Joe Biden, who was making his first foreign trip as leader, said it was an “extraordinary, collaborative and productive meeting” that showed “America’s back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values.” But health and environmental campaigners were distinctly unimpressed by the details in the leaders’ final communique. “This G-7 summit will live on in infamy,” said Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at the international aid group Oxfam. “Faced with the biggest health emergency in a century and a climate catastrophe that is destroying our planet, they have completely failed to meet the challenges of our times.” Also read: Biden urges G-7 leaders to call out and compete with China Despite Johnson’s call to “vaccinate the world” by the end of 2022, the promise of 1 billion doses for vaccine-hungry countries — coming both directly and through donations to the international COVAX program — falls far short of the 11 billion doses the World Health Organization said is needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the world’s population and truly end the pandemic. Half of the billion-dose pledge is coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain. Canada said it also would give 100 million doses, and France pledged 60 million. Altogether, the leaders said they pledged 870 million doses “directly over the next year,” with further contributions taking the total to the “equivalent of over 1 billion doses.” Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the lack of a more ambitious vaccination plan was “an unforgivable moral failure.” But Biden said the leaders were clear that the commitments they made to donate doses wouldn’t be the end. The U.S. president said getting shots into arms around the world was a “gigantic, logistical effort” and the goal might not be accomplished until 2023. The G-7 also backed a minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes, a move championed by the United States. Biden also wanted to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing and strongly call out China’s “nonmarket policies and human rights abuses.” The language on China in the G-7 leaders’ communique from the meeting was more muted than the United States has used, but Biden said he was satisfied. On China’s economic behavior, the group said it would “consult on collective approaches to challenging non-market policies and practices which undermine the fair and transparent operation of the global economy.” Also read: G-7 nations expected to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world The leaders also said they would promote their values by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of committing serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, and in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. Not every European power has viewed China in as harsh a light as Biden, who has painted the rivalry with the techno-security state as the defining competition of the 21st century. “The G-7 is not a club hostile to China,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “It’s an ensemble of democracies that (would) work with China on all world topics that China is ready to work on with us.” Johnson, the summit’s host, wanted the three-day meeting to fly the flag for a “Global Britain,” his government’s push to give the midsized country, newly detached from the European Union, outsized global influence. Yet Brexit cast a shadow over that goal during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and Biden voiced concerns about problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have heightened tensions in Northern Ireland. But overall, the mood was positive: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the beach at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that became a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. The prime ministers and presidents also mingled with Queen Elizabeth II at a royal reception, ate steak and lobster at a beach barbecue and watched an aeronautic display by the Royal Air Force Red Arrows during their stay by the sea. America’s allies were visibly relieved to have the U.S. back as an engaged international player after the “America First” policy of the Trump administration. Johnson called Biden “a breath of fresh air.” Italian Premier Mario Draghi said the president “wanted to rebuild what were the traditional alliances of the United States after the period of Trump, during which these alliances were seriously cracked.” Biden flew from the summit in Carbis Bay to have tea with the queen at Windsor Castle. He is scheduled to attend a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday and to hold talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday. Also read: G-7 to put off agreement on when to end coal-fired power generation The G-7 also made ambitious declarations during their meetings about girls’ education, preventing future pandemics and financing greener infrastructure globally On climate change, the “Build Back Better for the World” plan promises to offer financing for infrastructure — “from railways in Africa to wind farms in Asia” — to help speed up the global shift to renewable energy. The plan is a response to China’s “belt and road” initiative, which has increased Beijing’s worldwide influence. All G-7 countries have pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but many environmentalists say that will be too little, too late. Naturalist David Attenborough addressed the leaders by video Sunday, warning that humanity is “on the verge of destabilizing the entire planet.” “If that is so, then the decisions we make this decade — in particular the decisions made by the most economically advanced nations — are the most important in human history,” the veteran documentary filmmaker said. As the leaders met behind fences and barbed wire, thousands of environmental protesters gathered throughout the weekend outside the ring of steel to accuse the G-7 of missing a chance to prevent climate catastrophe. Members of the Extinction Rebellion climate activism group blocked the main road of the town of St. Ives on Sunday, banging drums and sitting on the road. Elsewhere, hundreds of surfers and kayakers paddled out to sea to urge better protection for the world’s oceans. “G-7 is all greenwashing,” protesters sang during one march. “We’re drowning in promises, now’s the time to act.”

The Group of Seven leaders aim to end their first summit in two years with a punchy set of promises Sunday, including vaccinating the world against coronavirus, making huge corporations pay their fair share of taxes and tackling climate change with a blend of technology and money. They want to show that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused both by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they want to convey that the club of wealthy democracies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China. But it was uncertain how firm the group’s commitments will be on coronavirus vaccines, the economy and the environment when the leaders issue their final communique. Also unclear was whether all of the leaders would back the United States’ call to chastise China for repressing its Uyghur minority and other abuses. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit’s host, wanted the three-day meeting to fly the flag for a “Global Britain,” his government’s initiative to give the midsized country outsized influence when it comes to global problem-solving. Read: Biden urges G-7 leaders to call out and compete with China Brexit cast a shadow over that goal during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden voiced concerns about problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have heightened tensions in Northern Ireland. But overall, the mood has been positive: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the beach at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that became a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. The last G-7 summit was in France in 2019. The pandemic scuttled the planned 2020 event in the United States. The leaders mingled with Queen Elizabeth II at a royal reception on their first evening, and were served steak and lobster at a beach barbecue on their second. America’s allies were visibly relieved to have the U.S. back as an engaged international player after the “America First” policy of the Trump administration. “The United States is back, and democracies of the world are standing together,” Biden said as he arrived in the U.K. on the first foreign trip of his 5-month-old presidency. After the G-7 summit, the president is to have tea with the queen on Sunday, attend a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday and hold talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday. At the G-7, Johnson described Biden as a “breath of fresh air.” French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking one-to-one with Biden, said, “It’s great to have a U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate.” Read: Biden sells G-7 on global tax, but U.S. Congress is a hurdle The re-energized G-7 made ambitious declarations during their meetings about girls’ education, preventing future pandemics and using the finance system to fund green growth. Above all, they vowed to share vaccine doses with less well-off nations that urgently need them. Johnson said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commended the vaccine pledge but said it’s not enough. To truly end the pandemic, he said, 11 billion doses are needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the world’s population by the middle of next year. “We need more and we need them faster,” Tedros said. Public health advocates said much more than just doses was needed, including money and logistical help to get shots into the arms of people in poorer countries. “It’s not enough to just get vaccines flown into capitals,” said Lily Caprani, head of COVID-19 vaccines advocacy for UNICEF. “We can’t let them potentially go to waste or be at risk or be at risk of not being delivered. So it’s a real end-to-end solution that’s needed.” The leaders’ final communique is expected to formally embrace placing a global minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to shift profits and to avoid taxes. Read: G-7 nations expected to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world The minimum rate was championed by the U.S., and dovetails with the aim of Biden — and Johnson — to focus the summit on ways the democracies can collaborate to build a more inclusive and fair global economy and to compete with rising autocracies like China. Non-G-7 nations India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa were invited to attend as guests to bolster the group’s support for fellow democracies. The White House said the leaders had also agreed an infrastructure plan, the Build Back Better world plan, to help low and middle-income countries. The move is a response to China’s “belt and road” initiative, which has increased Beijing’s influence in countries around the world. White House officials said Biden wants the G-7 leaders to speak in a single voice against the forced labor practices targeting China’s Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. Biden hopes the denunciation will be part of a joint statement Sunday, but some European allies are reluctant to split so forcefully with Beijing. The summit was also supposed to focus on climate change and to set the stage for the U.N. climate conference being held in November in Scotland. Climate activists and analysts have said filling a $100 billion annual fund that is intended to help poor countries tackle the effects of global warming should be at the top of the G-7′s to-do list. Read:G-7 to put off agreement on when to end coal-fired power generation Johnson’s office said he met with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Saturday and that the two agreed on the need for countries to step up and make ambitious commitments to cut carbon emissions and phase out the use of coal. But very little substance on the topic has so far emerged from the talks, to the frustration of environmental protesters who gathered nearby to make their message heard. Large crowds of surfers and kayakers took to the sea in a mass paddle protest Saturday to urge more action on protecting the oceans, while thousands chanted and beat drums as they marched outside the summit’s media center in Falmouth. “G-7 is all greenwashing,” the protesters sang. “We’re drowning in promises, now’s the time to act.”

Leaders of the world’s largest economies unveiled an infrastructure plan Saturday for the developing world to compete with China’s global initiatives, but they were searching for a consensus on how to forcefully to call out Beijing over human rights abuses. Citing China for its forced labor practices is part of President Joe Biden’s campaign to persuade fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with Beijing. But while they agreed to work toward competing against China, there was less unity on how adversarial a public position the group should take. Canada, the United Kingdom and France largely endorsed Biden’s position, while Germany, Italy and the European Union showed more hesitancy during Saturday’s first session of the Group of Seven summit, according to two senior Biden administration officials. The officials who briefed reporters were not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity. The communique that summarizes the meeting’s commitments was being written and the contents would not be clear until it was released when the summit ended Sunday. White House officials said late Saturday that they believed that China, in some form, could be called out for “nonmarket policies and human rights abuses.” Read: Biden sells G-7 on global tax, but U.S. Congress is a hurdle In his first summit as president, Biden made a point of carving out one-on-one-time with various leaders, bouncing from French president Emmanuel Macron to German chancellor Angela Merkel to Italian prime minister Mario Draghi as well as Japan’s Yoshihide Suga and Australia’s Scott Morrison, a day after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as if to personally try to ward off memories of the chaos that his predecessor would often bring to these gatherings. Macron told Biden that collaboration was needed on a range of issues and told the American president that “it’s great to have a U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate.” Relations between the allies had become strained during the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and his “America first” foreign policy. Merkel, for her part, downplayed differences on China and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which would transport natural gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. “The atmosphere is very cooperative, it is characterized by mutual interest,” Merkel said. “There are very good, constructive and very vivid discussions in the sense that one wants to work together.” White House officials have said Biden wants the leaders of the G-7 nations — the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy — to speak in a single voice against forced labor practices targeting China’s Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. Biden hopes the denunciation will be part of a joint statement to be released Sunday when the summit ends, but some European allies are reluctant to split so forcefully with Beijing. China had become one of the more compelling sublots of the wealthy nations’ summit, their first since 2019. Last year’s gathering was canceled because of COVID-19, and recovery from the pandemic is dominating this year’s discussions, with leaders expected to commit to sharing at least 1 billion vaccine shots with struggling countries. Read: G-7 nations expected to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world The allies also took the first steps in presenting an infrastructure proposal called “Build Back Better for the World,” a name echoing Biden’s campaign slogan. The plan calls for spending hundreds of billions of dollars in collaboration with the private sector while adhering to climate standards and labor practices. It’s designed to compete with China’s trillion-dollar “Belt and Road Initiative,” which has launched a network of projects and maritime lanes that snake around large portions of the world, primarily Asia and Africa. Critics say China’s projects often create massive debt and expose nations to undue influence by Beijing. Britain also wants the world’s democracies to become less reliant on the Asian economic giant. The U.K. government said Saturday’s discussions would tackle “how we can shape the global system to deliver for our people in support of our values,” including by diversifying supply chains that currently heavily depend on China. Not every European power has viewed China in as harsh a light as Biden, who has painted the rivalry with China as the defining competition for the 21st century. But there are some signs that Europe is willing to impose greater scrutiny. Before Biden took office in January, the European Commission announced it had come to terms with Beijing on a deal meant to provide Europe and China with greater access to each other’s markets. The Biden administration had hoped to have consultations on the pact. But the deal has been put on hold, and the European Union in March announced sanctions targeting four Chinese officials involved with human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Beijing responded with penalties on several members of the European Parliament and other Europeans critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Read: G-7 to put off agreement on when to end coal-fired power generation Biden administration officials see an opportunity to take concrete action to speak out against China’s reliance on forced labor as an “affront to human dignity.” While calling out China in the G-7 communique would not create any immediate penalties for Beijing, one senior administration official said the action would send a message that the leaders were serious about defending human rights and working together to eradicate the use of forced labor. An estimated 1 million people or more — most of them Uyghurs — have been confined in reeducation camps in China’s western Xinjiang region in recent years, according to researchers. Chinese authorities have been accused of imposing forced labor, systematic forced birth control, torture and separating children from incarcerated parents. Beijing rejects allegations that it is committing crimes. Johnson, the summit host, also welcomed the leaders from “guest nations” South Korea, Australia and South Africa, as well as the head of the United Nations, to the summit to “intensify cooperation between the world’s democratic and technologically advanced nations.” The leaders planned to attend a barbecue Saturday night, complete with toasted marshmallows, hot buttered rum and a performance by a sea shanty troupe. Read: G-7 finance ministers agree on 15% int'l minimum corporate tax rate India was also invited but its delegation is not attending in person because of the severe coronavirus outbreak in the country. Biden ends the trip Wednesday by meeting in Geneva with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The White House announced Saturday that they will not hold a joint news conference afterward, which removes the opportunity for comparisons to the availability that followed Trump and Putin’s 2018 Helsinki summit, in which Trump sided with Moscow over his own intelligence agencies. Only Biden will address the news media after the meeting. Putin, in an interview with NBC News, said the U.S.-Russia relationship had “deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years.” He added that while Trump was a “talented” and “colorful” person, Biden was a “career man” in politics, which has “some advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements” by the U.S. president.

Health officials and experts in Asia have welcomed U.S. plans to share 500 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine with the developing world, but some say it would take more than donations alone to address huge vaccination gaps that threaten to prolong the pandemic. President Joe Biden was set to make the announcement Thursday in a speech before the start of the Group of Seven summit in Britain. Two hundred million doses — enough to fully protect 100 million people — would be shared this year, with the balance to be donated in the first half of 2022, according to a source familiar with the matter who confirmed the news of the Pfizer sharing plan. Jaehun Jung, a professor of preventive medicine at South Korea’s Gachon University College of Medicine, said the U.S. donations may proveto be a “huge turning point” in the global fight against COVID-19, but also lamented that the help couldn’t come earlier. He said the extremely cold storage temperatures required for Pfizer shots would present challenges for countries with poor health systems and called for U.S. officials and the New York-based drug maker to explore the possibility of easing the requirements. Read:AP source: US to buy 500M Pfizer vaccines to share globally He said the delay in U.S. help was “understandable, because the United States initially had its own troubles with supplies while inoculating its own population. But for now, it’s critical to move up the timing of the vaccine provisions to the earliest possible point.” According to the person who spoke to the AP, the Biden administration plans to provide the 500 million shots it purchases from Pfizer to 92 lower income countries and the African Union over the next year through the U.N.-backed COVAX program. The United States has faced increasing pressure to outline its global vaccine sharing plan. Inequities in supplies around the world have become more pronounced while there’s increasing concern over newer virus variants emerging from areas with consistently high COVID-19 circulation. The White House had earlier announced plans to share 80 million doses globally by the end of June, most through COVAX. The additional donation of the Pfizer shots is crucial because the global disparity in vaccination has become a multidimensional threat: a human catastrophe, a $5 trillion economic loss for advanced economies, and a contributor to the generation of mutant viruses, said Jerome Kim, the head of the International Vaccine Institute, a non-profit dedicated to making vaccines available to developing countries. Read: G7 must ensure vaccine access in developing countries: UN experts Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said the success of Biden’s vaccine-sharing plan would depend mainly on how fast the shots could be manufactured and sent to countries in need amid global shortages. She also echoed Jung’s concerns about Pfizer’s cold chain requirements and said the U.S. donations should be accompanied with efforts to improve infrastructure and educate health workers in receiving countries. “It’s very important to manage international cooperation so that the whole world can be vaccinated quickly,” she said during a briefing. The United States has yet to confirm the 92 lower-income countries that would be receiving the Pfizer shots. In Asia, Jung said that India and Southeast Asia are in desperate need of donations. Vaccinating isolated North Korea could also prove to be a difficult challenge. Some experts say donations alone wouldn’t be enough to close the huge gaps in supplies and call for a transition toward a distributed system of vaccine manufacturing where qualified companies around the world would produce their own shots without intellectual property constraints. Read: WTO panel considers easing protections on COVID-19 vaccines But Jung said many developing countries depending on COVAX donations don’t have the industrial resources to manufacture advanced vaccines like Pfizer’s mRNA shots. As countries around the world struggled to access vaccines, unable to secure bilateral deals with companies like Pfizer, many have turned to China. China has exported 350 million doses of its vaccines to dozens of countries, according to its Foreign Ministry. China has pledged 10 million doses to COVAX, and the Chinese drug maker Sinopharm said last week it had just finished a batch of vaccines for sharing with COVAX. The WHO had approved the vaccine for emergency use last month. While Chinese vaccines have faced scrutiny because of a lack of transparency in sharing clinical trial data, many countries were desperate to take what was available and found the shots easier to use as they could be stored in normal refrigerators.