00:00Well, surprises could remain in the G7 being held in Bari, Italy this year.
00:07On day one, the war in Ukraine dominated talks.
00:10Today, it will be China, leaders discussing the world's second largest economy, its trade
00:16relationship with the rest of the world, and its political relationship to Russia.
00:21Sharp focus will be how to protect industries in leaders' respective countries while trying
00:26to avoid an all-out trade war with Beijing.
00:30Our foreign editor, Philip Turrell, is covering this summit, and we can speak to him now.
00:35Hello to you, Philip.
00:37What kind of measures are G7 leaders going to be discussing today?
00:42Well, hello there, William.
00:45This is going to be the second day of discussions, as you were saying, and a pretty complicated
00:49day I think for G7 leaders.
00:51What they want to do is to put forward a united approach to China, trying to convey the
00:56idea to the Chinese that it's not individual states that bear a grudge against Chinese
01:01subsidies for green technology or for electric vehicles, for example, but it's the whole
01:08of the G7.
01:09All G7 nations are worried about the situation in China.
01:14They say they want a level playing field with the Chinese.
01:18In particular, Joe Biden's accused the Chinese of playing an unfair game with the rest of
01:25the world.
01:26That's why they're meeting today to try to hammer out some kind of an agreement.
01:29Now, what they're upset about is that China is subsidising the manufacture of green technology
01:37for vehicles, for example, also for solar panels, which are then going to flood Western
01:44markets, meaning that Western companies can't keep up with the cheaper imports coming from
01:49China.
01:50They've already announced it's going to up by 100%.
01:53It's taxes on cars coming from China, electric vehicles coming from China.
01:58As for the European Union, they're trying to negotiate a 38% increase in import duties
02:04on green vehicles from the Chinese.
02:07But I think what the message they're trying to convey to the Chinese is, look, we need
02:11to get round the table and to sort this out because we can't accept that China is going
02:15to unfairly dominate that market.
02:18There are a couple of other issues too.
02:20There are worries about minerals that are coming out of China that are being restricted,
02:25particularly graphite, for example, which is used in modern technology.
02:29There's worries that if China restricts the export of those minerals that it will put
02:34in jeopardy the manufacture in other countries of modern technology.
02:39And of course, Ukraine is also one of the issues on the agenda as far as China is concerned
02:43with worry.
02:44I think basically that China is continuing to support the Russian economy and also to
02:50send in spare parts and drones to Russia, even though Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a press
02:57conference last night with Joe Biden said that he had received the word from the Chinese
03:02president on his honour that there will be no weapons sent to the Russians to help them
03:07in the war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying, well, I hope he won't.
03:11We'll have to see what happens in the long run.
03:13Yeah, Philip, events like this often provide a convenient reason for leaders to meet on
03:19the sidelines.
03:20French President Emmanuel Macron has some important bilateral discussions.
03:24What's on his agenda?
03:28Well, it's a busy day for the French president.
03:29He'll be flying out of Italy tonight.
03:32He'd be then going on to the peace conference in Switzerland for Ukraine.
03:37So it's a busy time for the French president who got here yesterday.
03:40Later on today, he's going to be meeting with Pope Francis, who is due to arrive here
03:45in Puglia at about half past 12 local time.
03:49There will be a meeting this afternoon where the pope is going to be taking part in a session
03:53on artificial intelligence.
03:54Now, that might seem quite a strange issue for the pope to intervene on, but Pope Francis
03:59has been quite outspoken on that issue, saying that he has been victim himself to artificial
04:04intelligence and also to images that were falsely created depicting him.
04:10And he wants a European or a G7 type of ruling concerning artificial intelligence.
04:19And that's why he's going to be pushing for that in the meeting this afternoon.
04:22And of course, talking in bilateral, a bilateral head to head with the French President Emmanuel
04:27Macron, who will then be going on to meet with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
04:31who is also here in Italy at the moment.
04:34There will be issues on artificial intelligence, on energy, on trade, and on India's role also
04:40in the war in Ukraine.
04:41So a lot on the agenda today for the French president, for all of the G7 leaders who are
04:47here, who will all be meeting in session today with other leaders outside of the G7 who've
04:53been invited to take part in these discussions.
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