South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is on Friday attending a four-day G7 Leaders’ Summit in Cornwall in Britain, a gathering which is expected to discuss global efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic which has taken three million lives worldwide, his office said on Friday.
According to the presidency, Ramaphosa was invited to attend the meeting in recognition of his country’s leadership role on the continent and globally in the fight against the pandemic, including championing vaccine equity within and between nations.
The office added that South Africa was also invited for its role as co-chair of the World Health Organisation’s Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator Facilitation Council, which aims to expedite research, manufacturing and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics across the world.
The G7 summit was expected to allow South Africa to make its pitch for a swift international response to the pandemic to enable the equitable and affordable access of Covid-19 vaccines and medical supplies.
Ramaphosa and his counterparts were also expected to deliberate on proposals formulated during G7 ministerial talks in the lead-up to the leaders’ summit, including the proposal to slap a 15% tax on earnings of multinationals operating in their countries, the presidency said.
It added that the South African leader would participate in three working sessions on Health, Open Societies and Economies, and Climate and Nature.
Apart from discussing solutions to the pandemic, Ramaphosa’s visit to Britain would offer Pretoria and London an opportunity to deepen strong ties that characterise the two countries’ long relations, the office said.
The president returns home on Sunday.
NM/jn/APA