European and Western leaders are rushing to voice their concerns and making pledges about COVID-19 vaccine equality, ahead of the G7 summit on Friday at which vaccines will be top of the agenda

The meeting, scheduled for the afternoon, between the leaders of the U.S., France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and in the presence of the heads of the European Union, will be led by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson, who can boast of the success of his vaccination campaign – with the UK currently third in the world in terms of the highest total vaccinations – will pledge in his speech to the virtual G7 meeting to donate most of the UK's surplus vaccine supply to poorer countries.

The UK had faced scrutiny from campaigners for dragging its heels when it comes to sharing vaccines, as the country with a population of 66.7 million has ordered more than 400 million doses, meaning many will be left over after all adults are vaccinated.

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Johnson is also set to advocate for support from rich countries for strengthened health cooperation, with a target to reduce to 100 days the time necessary for the development of vaccines against new diseases.

"The development of viable coronavirus vaccines offers the tantalizing prospect of a return to normality, but we must not rest on our laurels. As leaders of the G7 we must say today 'never again'," the prime minister said ahead of the summit.

"By harnessing our collective ingenuity, we can ensure have the vaccines, treatments and tests to be battle-ready for future health threats, as we beat COVID-19 and build back better together."

France's President Emmanuel Macron also joined in drumming up G7 support to facilitate equal access to the COVID-19 vaccine, saying on the eve of the G7 meeting it was "unsustainable" that poor countries should be neglected.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Macron said rich countries should send 4 to 5 percent of their current vaccine supplies to poorer nations "very quickly, and that people see them arriving on the ground."

"This does not slow down" the Western vaccine strategy, he assured. He warned of a "war of influence" for lack of action, citing China and Russia, both of which are currently leading in vaccine diplomacy by sending their vaccines directly to Africa.

Macron also said Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel supported a European vaccine-sharing initiative, adding that he hoped to win the backing of the U.S. as well.

Merkel said she would like to see "the G7 take more responsibility" regarding the response to the pandemic, according to her spokesperson.

In particular, the focus is on the support for the UN's COVAX scheme, an initiative with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international bodies intended to ensure wider access to vaccines, to which several Western countries have pledged support and which Washington has promised to join.

Joe Biden, who is making his presidential debut on the world stage at the G7 meeting, is set to pledge $4 billion to the COVAX program in hopes of prying loose bigger donations from other governments, officials said on Thursday.

Biden's action is a sharp departure from his predecessor Donald Trump's threat to withdraw from the WHO, which he accused of being too close to China.

No shortage of other concerns

With inoculation campaigns picking up speed, in the West at least, G7 leaders also hope to look past the pandemic to financial recovery after lockdowns ravaged many economies.

Biden's arrival at the White House ended four years of unilateralism, with Washington signaling the new administration's backing of multilateral agreements and organizations such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the WHO.

On the other hand, Biden did not break from Trump's stance on China (which is not part of the G7), towards which Washington maintains a firm position.

The U.S. president wants to plead on Friday to "update international rules to meet economic challenges as posed by China," after Washington criticized EU for having signed an economic agreement with Beijing.

Beijing has said it is opposed to "clique politics" and ideological confrontation, when asked about the G7's agenda.

"We oppose group politics based on ideological divides, forming exclusive cliques and imposing the will of a minority group of countries over international society," China's foreign ministry told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday.

"Behaviors like these will not gain popularity among the international community, nor will they benefit the countries themselves and will only push the world towards divide and even confrontation," it added.

China's foreign ministry said that all international meetings should be conducive to multilateralism and global affairs should be collectively managed by different nations.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday called on the EU to act "independently and autonomously," during a video meeting with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said the bloc had "strong bonds" with the U.S., but emphasized strategic autonomy. 

"As long as China and the EU make policies independently and autonomously from the perspective of the common interest, there would be big achievements. The China-EU comprehensive agreement of investment is a good example," Wang said.

Updated rules are also under debate among G7 finance ministers to harmonize taxation of cross-border digital giants such as Google and Facebook, which have benefited from the pandemic in terms of profits.

Joe Biden also wants to take advantage of the meeting to reaffirm the priority given by his administration to the climate issue.

Biden will promote "a robust agenda of measures to address the global climate crisis," as Britain prepares to host the UN's next climate summit, COP26, in the Scottish city of Glasgow in November. 

Prior to that, Johnson hopes to convene the first in-person G7 summit in nearly two years on June 11-13, at a picturesque resort in Cornwall, southwest England.

It will build towards a G20 gathering including Brazil, China, India and Russia in late October in Rome, just ahead of COP26, which is billed as the last chance for world leaders to act against runaway global warming.

In a sign of a desire to repair transatlantic relations, Biden is also due to speak on Friday afternoon with Johnson and Germany's Merkel, at the Munich Security Conference, a first for a U.S. president at this annual event bringing together leaders of state, diplomats and security specialists.

There will be no shortage of other subjects for the leaders of the great powers, including Iran, the military takeover in Myanmar and the imprisonment of Russian opponent Navalny, strongly condemned at the end of January by a statement from the heads of G7 diplomacy.