Foreign Ministers from the G7 countries–Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the European Union and the United States pledged to counter China’s ‘malign’ practices of illegitimate technology transfer and tackle economic coercion.
“We will seek to address the challenges posed by China’s non-market policies and practices, which distort the global economy. We will counter malign practices, such as illegitimate technology transfer or data disclosure. We will foster resilience to economic coercion. We also recognise the necessity of protecting certain advanced technologies that could be used to threaten our national security without unduly limiting trade and investment,” read the joint statement of G7 countries.
The group also called on China to stop assisting Russia in its war against Ukraine.
The statement read, “We call on China to act as a responsible member of the international community. In this regard, we welcome China’s participation in the Ukraine-led peace process. We further call on China not to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine, to press Russia to stop its military aggression, and to support a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
The G7 Foreign Ministers also underscored their call on China to abide by the international laws and principles of the UN Charter and expressed their concern over the forced attempts to change geographical areas.
The Joint statement said, “We underscore that China has a responsibility to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in their entirety. We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas, strongly opposing any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.”
It said further, “We reemphasize the universal and unified character of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and reaffirm UNCLOS’s important role in setting out the legal framework that governs all activities in the oceans and the seas. We reiterate that the award rendered by the Arbitral Tribunal on July 12, 2016, is a significant milestone, which is legally binding upon the parties to those proceedings, and a useful basis for peacefully resolving disputes between the parties.”
The leaders also reaffirmed their stand on Taiwan’s peace and stability and expressed their concern over human rights violations in China.