G-7 leaders pledge to protect jobs, spur recovery

Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations pledged during a call on Friday to sustain government spending to help economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations pledged during a call on Friday to sustain government spending to help economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson hosts a virtual meeting of G7 leaders in the Cabinet Room at Downing Street in London. (AFP)

“We will continue to support our economies to protect jobs and support a strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive recovery,” the G-7 said in a statement published after the call, hosted by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The discussion, which marked US President Joe Biden’s debut as leader on the world stage, saw the G-7 commit to consider debt relief for developing nations and promise to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest.

They also underlined the importance of multilateralism, a sign that the group wanted to move past the Donald Trump era. It agreed to strengthen the World Health Organization, a body that the previous US administration had chastized and left.

“Drawing on our strengths and values as democratic, open economies and societies, we will work together and with others to make 2021 a turning point for multilateralism and to shape a recovery that promotes the health and prosperity of our people and planet,” leaders said in their communique. “We will intensify cooperation on the health response to covid-19.”