BORIS Johnson and Carrie Symonds welcomed world leaders to the G7 with an elbow-bump on the beach at Cornwall this afternoon.
The group of nations posed by the sea at Carbis Bay for their traditional – but socially distanced – “family photo” for the first time in two years.
World leaders have converged on Cornwall for three days of crunch talks where they will thrash out battle plans to fight coronavirus, climate change and global poverty.
Mr Johnson kicked off the summit with sitdowns with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Italian PM Mario Draghi and and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga.
It followed a jovial inaugural meeting last night with US President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill and his new wife Carrie.
Afterwards Mr Johnson hailed the transatlantic alliance as the “indestructible relationship”
He also praised the Biden team as a “breath of fresh air”, taking a swipe at Donald Trump who took a sledgehammer to diplomacy left the last G7 in carnage.
As the G7 kicked off:
- The PM hailed the new Biden administration as a “breath of fresh air”
- Mr Johnson wants to rebrand the transatlantic alliance the “indestructible relationship“
- Ministers insisted their G7 pledge to give away 100m vaccines won’t impact the UK’s rollout
- Footie fans were told the leaders final press conference clashed with the England match
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also jetted into Newquay Airport this morning.
They risk hijacking the summit to collar Mr Johnson about UK threats to tear up parts of the Brexit deal to quell rising tensions in Northern Ireland.
The PM yesterday blasted that “excessively burdensome” checks on goods arriving in the province – but said the G7 was not the place hammer out a solution.
Mr Johnson instead wants to focus on “building back better” from the pandemic, unveiling his flagship pitch to “vaccinate the world” by 2022.
He has called on fellow leaders to donate a billion jabs to poorer countries – and pledged 100million from Britain.
After an afternoon of roundtable meetings the leaders will be treated to a lavish reception with the Queen at the Eden Project.
They will be treated to locally-caught Turbot roasted on the bone with Cornish new potatoes and wild garlic pesto with greens.
