Prime Minister thanks Cornwall for hospitality as G7 summit finishes
Boris described Carbis Bay as “one of the most beautiful places in the world”
Last updated 13th Jun 2021
The Prime Minister has thanked Cornwall for its hospitality during the G7 summit and described Carbis Bay as “one of the most beautiful places in the world”.
Boris Johnson made the comments in his last press conference to end the event which was hosted at Carbis Bay this weekend.
World leaders from the G7 group, including US President Joe Biden on his first foreign trip since becoming President, have been in Cornwall to discuss key issues including Covid-19 vaccinations and climate change.
They were also joined by leaders from invited nations including Australia, South Africa and South Korea.
Opening his press conference at Carbis Bay Mr Johnson highlighted that the summit had been the first gathering of world leaders for two years.
He said: “I do hope that we have lived up to some of the most optimistic hopes of people.”
At the end of his speech he paid tribute to the organisation of the event in Cornwall and the help of the Cornish people.
He said: “I want to thank the police and everybody who helped organise this summit. All the people, not just of Carbis Bay, but everybody involved, all the other people of Cornwall for their hospitality. All the other delegations would also want to express their thanks as well.”
And when discussing environmental issues discussed at the summit he said: “Carbis Bay is one of the most beautiful places in the world, as you can see, it was a fitting setting for the first net zero G7 summit.”
The Prime Minister added that it was unfortunate that the England football team was unable to watch his press conference live as they were playing their opening game of Euro 2020 against Croatia, but said he hoped that they would watch later.
Mr Johnson hailed the pledges of G7 nations to provide Covid-19 vaccinations with more than 1billion pledged during the summit, including 100million from the UK, for the world’s poorest countries.
He said that it was “another big step towards vaccinating the world” and paid tribute to the work of scientists, governments and pharmaceutical companies in tackling the virus.
And he highlighted the role of Oxford Astra Zeneca in providing vaccines and doing so at cost.
Turning to the recovery from the pandemic the Prime Minister said that all nations need to “build back better for all the people of the world”.
But he also said that world leaders needed to work together to “prevent a pandemic like this happening ever again”.
Mr Johnson then talked about the issue of education and pledges made to help provide education to children all over the world in developing countries, including £430m from the UK.
He said: “It is an international disgrace that some children in the world are unable to learn or reach their full potential.”
On climate change the Prime Minister said that this would be discussed further at the COP26 in Glasgow but said that “action has to start with us”.
After stating that the G7 had been “net zero” he said that there was a need for all world leaders to ensure that the targets of zero carbon are reached.
“We need to make sure that we are achieving that as fast as we can and helping developing countries at the same time.”
When questioned after Mr Johnson was asked about booing when England footballers take the knee before games and asked whether if he was selected for England if he would take the knee.
The Prime Minister said that “everybody should cheer for England” and said that it was highly unlikely that he would ever be selected to play for England.
He was also asked about a delay to the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions on June 21 and said that no final decision had been made and that an announcement would be made tomorrow, as planned.