G7 Summit in Sicily: Disagreements among Countries or Lack of Experience?

• 06.01.2017, 11:57
•  Europe,  America,  Asia,  World

Miguel Medina /AFP

After the Brexit and Donald Trump election, Europe will have to count only on itself. This statement was made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Sicily at the "Great Seven" Summit (US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Japan) after they failed to reach agreement on combating climate change on Paris Agreement signed in 2015. Perhaps this was the only issue around which G7 countries failed to agree.

Thus, in the final document of G7 summit the countries named as their main priority the increase in global economic growth in order to ensure higher living standards and creation of high quality jobs.

Another important point in the final document was the struggle against the "Islamic state" terrorist group. In particular, these states are calling for Middle Eastern countries to take a more active role in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and other countries that IS terrorist groups are trying to destroy. In addition, summit participants urged Russia and Iran to use their influence on Damascus for ceasefire.

The final declaration referred to the policy towards Russia. In particular, G7 countries decided to continue the policy of sanctions against Russia setting some new restrictive measures against the country. The final declaration also states that the "Great Seven" countries are ready to cooperate with Russia to solve regional crises, if only "it is in their interests."

Reference is also made to the South China Sea developments on North Korea's nuclear and missile tests and a number of other current international issues.

However, it is emphasized that this agreement has purely declarative character, the final declaration does not contain any concrete steps towards the implementation of the agreement (here it should be noted that the summit's final document (6 pages) is the shortest compared to the previous ones). However, this may be due not only to the existing disagreements on some issues among G7 countries, but also the presence of the newcomers, i. e. US president Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron, who have no much political experience.