The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations have declared they will support Ukraine’s defence against Russia “for as long as it takes”, capping off a G7 summit marked by broad consensus on global conflicts but clashes on abortion and vaccine funding.
The leaders’ statement, issued towards the end of the summit in Apulia, Italy, committed the countries to continued military, budget, humanitarian and reconstruction support to Ukraine and its people.
“Russia must end its illegal war of aggression and pay for the damage it has caused to Ukraine,” the statement read.
“These damages now exceed $US486 billion [$735 billion], according to the World Bank.
“It is not right for Russia to decide if or when it will pay for the damage it has caused in Ukraine.”
The leaders’ communiqué was issued the day after the G7 nations — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada — pledged to loan roughly $75 billion to Ukraine by the end of the year to aid its war effort.
The money will be repaid over time using the interest from almost $425 billion in Russian assets frozen by Western countries in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Joe Biden also signed a 10-year security pact on the first day of the summit, a move intended to signal the US’s long-term commitment to Ukraine’s defence.
“We remain determined to dispel any false notion that time is on Russia’s side, that destroying infrastructure and livelihoods has no consequences for Russia, or that Russia can prevail by causing Ukraine to fail economically,” the leaders’ statement read.
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Russia did not directly address the G7 leaders’ statement, but on Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would order an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine if Kyiv renounced its plans to join NATO and gave up four eastern regions of the country, a proposal Ukraine immediately rejected.
A separate peace summit being hosted by Mr Zelenskyy in Switzerland over the weekend is preparing to condemn Russia’s invasion and call for Ukrainian control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and its ports on the Azov Sea to be restored, according to the Reuters news agency.
Russia was not invited to the summit, which it has dismissed as a waste of time.
“None of the participants in the ‘peace forum’ knows what he is doing there and what his role is,” said Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president who is now deputy chair of the country’s Security Council.
Meloni prevails on abortion, vaccines
While the summit was largely viewed as a show of Western unity on Ukraine, it was marked by clashes between some of the leaders on issues like abortion and funding for vaccine development.
Unlike the 2023 G7 communiqué, which called for “access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care”, the final text of the statement contained no reference to the procedure.
Diplomats said the text had been removed from the 2024 statement at the behest of host nation Italy, which is led by arch-conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The move sparked a rebuke from French President Emmanuel Macron, who told an Italian reporter the two countries don’t have the “same sensibilities”.
“France has a vision of equality between women and men, but it’s not a vision shared by all the political spectrum,” he said.
Ms Meloni later called the issue “totally contrived”, and told reporters it was “profoundly wrong” for Mr Macron to “campaign” on the issue at a forum like the G7.
Italy was also behind a move to water down the statement’s language on vaccine development, according to diplomats who followed the negotiations.
The 2023 communiqué called for “investment in global health through vaccine manufacturing capacity worldwide”.
This year, the statement only included a reference to “regional vaccines manufacturing initiatives”.
The two issues undercut the sense of unity which otherwise prevailed at the summit, which also hosted discussions on the risks of artificial intelligence and a visit from Pope Francis.
ABC/Wires
