Britain Is Back, PM Tells G7 Summit

Britain Is Back, PM Tells G7 Summit

David Cameron arrived at the G7 summit in Germany with a message that Britain is looking for progress not only on economic issues like the conclusion of the EU-US free trade deal, but also on security issues like Ukraine, Islamic State, disease epidemics and the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

Speaking shortly after the Royal Navy ship HMS Bulwark rescued hundreds of migrants trying to cross from Libya into Europe by boat, the Prime Minister said that the UK was taking action not only because it was "a country with a conscience", but also because it recognised that crises overseas could have impacts on issues like migration and disease control at home.

Fresh from last month's election victory, Mr Cameron said he was coming to the gathering of seven leading industrial economies at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps with a message that "Britain is back".

He said: "My message here is very clear - Britain is back. We've got a growing economy, we've got our deficit coming down, we are creating jobs at a record level.

"And Britain doesn't just want a strong economy. We want to engage with these issues of international security, whether that's a more secure Iraq or Syria, whether it's conquering Ebola in west Africa, whether it's dealing with the crisis in the Mediterranean.

"We do these things not just because we are a country with a conscience. We also do it because we know these things affect us back at home.

"Whenever I come to one of these gatherings, what's on my mind is the jobs and security of British people and that means a strong Britain engaged in the world, and that's exactly what we are."

Mr Cameron was speaking shortly before his official welcome by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is hosting a two-day G7 summit set to be dominated by concerns about Russian destabilisation of Ukraine, the Greek debt crisis and the rise of Islamic state in Iraq and Syria.

Top of the official agenda is climate change, with host German Chancellor Angela Merkel keen to secure a united G7 position ahead of the crunch Paris conference in November, when it is hoped to reach a new international agreement on limiting temperature rises.

Before joining Mrs Merkel, US president Barack Obama, French president Francois Hollande, Italian PM Matteo Renzi, Canadian PM Stephen Harper and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Mr Cameron made clear that he will also seek to use the G7 gathering to maintain pressure on Russia over Ukraine.

The EU and US worked in concert to impose stiff sanctions on members of President Vladmir Putin's inner circle and key sectors of the Russian economy in the wake of last year's annexation of Crimea and destabilisation of the east of Ukraine by Moscow-backed separatists.

Russia was also ejected from the G8 group, resulting in this year's slimmed-down summit line-up of seven.

But there are concerns that Greece - whose PM Alexis Tsipras is due to meet the Russian president on June 18 for talks on his country's debt crisis - may break ranks and block renewal of the EU's economic and financial sanctions at the end of July.

Mr Cameron left no doubt he is looking to the G7 to send a strong message to all EU capitals of the need to maintain pressure on Moscow until the full implementation of the Minsk peace agreement in Ukraine.

Mr Cameron will also seek continued commitment to international action against the Islamic State terror group in Iraq and Syria and support for UN envoy Bernardino Leon's mission to find a political solution to the instability in Libya.

And he will voice concern over slow progress on the proposed US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), urging leaders to set a target of the end of 2015 to finalise political agreement.

Negotiations on the free trade deal have now lasted more than 700 days since they were launched under the UK presidency of the G7 in 2013, Mr Cameron will say. And he will warn that every day that the deal is not concluded costs the world £630 million due to unnecessary tariffs and other trade burdens.

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