Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Saturday that the West and its allies must be united against authoritarianism, as she hosted G 7 counterparts with concerns about threats from Russia and China.
The two-day gathering of foreign ministers from the world's richest nations in Liverpool, northwest England, is the last in-person gathering of Britain's year-long G 7 presidency, before it hands over the baton to Germany.
Russia's build-up of troops on Ukraine's border is top of the agenda, along with discussions on confronting China, limiting Iran's nuclear ambitions and addressing the crisis in military-ruled Myanmar.
Truss said as she opened the talks, she did not mention specific countries, that we need to come together strongly to fight the aggressors who are trying to limit the bounds of freedom and democracy.
We need to have a united voice in order to do this. We need to expand our economic and security posture around the world. On Friday, Truss held talks on the sidelines of the summit with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Blinken flies on to Southeast Asia next week on a visit designed to highlight the importance of Washington's strategy to stand up to an increasingly assertive China in the region.
Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN will be at the G 7 summit for the first time on Sunday, and will be focused on wide-ranging talks on issues including Covid 19 vaccines, finance and gender equality.
South Africa, Australia, and India will be among the many attendees who take part in Britain's G 7 guests, with many attendees taking part virtually due to the Pandemic and the emergence of the Omicron variant.
She said before the meeting that she wanted deeper ties between G 7 nations in trade, investment, technology and security so we can defend and advance freedom and democracy across the world. She said that she will be pushing that point over the next few days.
Truss, who replaced Dominic Raab as Britain's top diplomat in September, delivered her first major foreign policy address Wednesday as crises loom around the world.
She warned Moscow it would be a strategic mistake to invade Ukraine after growing concerns over a Russian troop build-up on the border.
The comments from U.S. President Joe Biden to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were made during a virtual summit the previous day.
Britain's G 7 presidency has been dominated by its reaction to Beijing's increasing international assertiveness and widespread domestic rights abuses, including its Muslim minority Uyghur population.
A panel of human rights lawyers and experts in London concluded this week that Beijing had committed genocide by imposing population restrictions on the Uyghurs, including birth control and forced sterilization.
Biden pushed for a stronger collective stance towards both China and Russia at the G 7 leaders' summit in June, and this week Washington, London and Canberra announced diplomatic boycotts of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Truss said the West needs to work towards ending the dependence of a growing number of low and middle-income countries on its adversaries in various areas from energy to technology.
According to the foreign office, she will encourage attendees to provide more funding for infrastructure and technology projects at the summit.
It said that G 7 countries and their allies must offer an alternative to unsustainable debt from non-market economies like China.
Truss will unveil a UK-led initiative - the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator -- to boost collaboration in Africa's most fragile markets and develop a pipeline of investable opportunities. It will help the G 7 meet its commitment to invest over 80 billion into the private sector in Africa over the next five years to support sustainable economic recovery and growth, according to the foreign office.