Leaders of
the Group of Seven wealthy nations met African heads of state on Saturday, the
final day of their annual summit which has been marked by discord over climate
change, but unity on tackling terrorism.
Italy had
hoped to make Africa the major focus of the annual G7 gathering, holding the
discussions on the island of Sicily that has taken in hundreds of thousands of
migrants over the past four years as they flee war and poverty back home.
However, the
two-day meeting got overshadowed by a suicide bombing in northern England on
Monday that killed 22 people, and also got bogged down by lengthy discussions
on the merit of free trade and the 2015 Paris Agreement to tackle climate
change.
U.S.
President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to honor a U.S. commitment to
greenhouse gas emissions and has pushed back against a lattice of international
trade accords that he says have hurt American economic interests.
"We are
having to talk about things settled years ago," said a top level member of
one G7 delegation, frustrated by the U.S. position.
Diplomats
from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States
worked late into the night to agree on the final communique, which was expected
to be little more than six pages long, against 32 pages last year.
A French
presidential source said substantial progress had been made on the question of
trade, particularly in the area of multilateralism, suggesting Trump may have
bowed to pressure for a more collaborative approach to international commerce.
Italy had
hoped to emphasize the positive impact migration can have and to call on
industrialized nations to open up more legal channels for immigration to try to
slow the flow of people risking their lives to reach Europe on flimsy boats
from Libya.
That idea
was shot down ahead of the meeting.
"There
was very strong opposition by the Americans and British who wanted to refocus
on security and water down the expansive language on freedom of movement,"
said a European diplomat, who declined to be named.
AFRICAN
DEVELOPMENT
Security
questions dominated initial G7 discussion on Friday and the leaders issued a
statement telling internet service providers and social media firms to
"substantially increase" their efforts to rein in extremist content.
The leaders
of Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria's acting president joined the
talks on Saturday morning, along with the heads of the African Union, the
United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
"Perhaps
the choice (to be in) Taormina and Sicily says much about how important our
relations are with Africa," Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in
opening remarks.
"Today
our discussion on Africa will focus on the need for a partnership across all
sectors ... with innovation and development our core objective," he said,
speaking in Italian.
Unlike other
leaders, Trump, who was sitting between the heads of state of Tunisia and
Niger, did not put on headphones to listen to a simultaneous translation.
The U.S.
president will return to Washington later on Saturday at the end of a nine-day
tour of the Middle East and Europe -- his first foreign trip since taking
office.
Unlike other
G7 leaders, he is not due to give a closing press conference before flying out.
U.S.
officials said he had enjoyed "robust" conversations with his allies
in Sicily and had also learnt a lot -- especially in the debate on climate
change, which he has previously dismissed as a hoax.
"He
came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving which
exactly as they should be," Trump's economic adviser Gary Cohn said on
Friday.
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