credit for pulling this together. ♪ >> this is al jazeera. these are your top stories. the coronavirus pandemic has dominated the first day of the g7 summit, leaders are promising one billion coronavirus vaccines to developing nations. they called for further global action, the welcoming the move. >> we need more than bilateral forms of support and individual countries' initiatives. we need a concerted effort. we need a global vaccination plan, and for it to be possible, we need all the countries that

are meaningful in the production of vaccines, or can be with the proper support, to come together. if not, the risk is that there will be still large areas of the developing world where the virus will spread like fire, and the risks of new variants coming and becoming immune to vaccines can undermine efforts today to make sure the full population is vaccinated. >> chile's capital has gone into lockdown despite more than half the population being fully vaccinated. the number of cases in santiago has surged by 25% over the past two weeks. intensive care beds have almost run out. mali's transitional government named a new cabinet. the defense minister returns, his removal led to last month's coup. the u.s. justice to permit is launching an internal investigation over activities

during donald trump's administration. prosecutors ordered big tech firms to supply data on democratic lawmakers, as part of an inquiry classified leaks. deforestation in brazil'sray fo, compared to a year earlier. the land was used for cattle ranches, farms, and logging. the euro 2020 has finally kicked off after years of delay. the biggest sporting event since the start of the pandemic. the opening match was held in rome, where italy beat turkey 3-0. those are your headlines. inside story is next. -- "inside story" is next. ♪ >> regaining leadership on the world stage. u.s. president joe biden is

meeting world leaders in europe, and he is promising america is back. but after four tumultous years under his predecessor, what can biden deliver? this is "inside story." ♪ hello there, and welcome to the program. in cornwall, on the southwest coast of england, the world's seven largest powers are meeting to discuss a daunting list of weighty issues. the talks will be dominated by vaccine diplomacy, climate change, and rebuilding the global economy. the u.k. is u.s. president joe biden's first stop in his eight day trip to europe since taking office in january. biden has said he is determined to rebuild transatlantic ties and reframe relations with russia, after four rocky years

under former president donald trump, whose tariffs and withdrawal from treaties strained relations with nato allies. biden is meeting leaders on the sidelines, after group sessions. we have more from cornwall. reporter: it's an extremely important week for joe biden, no doubt. the u.s. president's first trip abroad since taking office five months ago. he's here in cornwall face-to-face with perhaps the most important allies that the u.s. has, he's here with a very clear message for them. in his own words, to show the u.s. is back. back to a global leadership. back to more traditional forms of multilateral diplomacy. the allies of course, extremely keen to embrace that message. particularly as their economies emerge from the pandemic, perhaps looking for fresh global direction, and still very fresh in the memory, the era of donald trump, confrontational and unpredictable.

will it succeed? will joe biden convince the world? this meeting, already proceeding on the basis of agreement, rather than discord, he will move on from here to brussels to further shore up alliances with nato and the eu and construct what he describes as a coalition of democracies, a united front for when he sits down next week with the russian president, vladimir putin. i expect joe biden's approach there to be very, very different to his predecessor, donald trump's, who of course, famously cozied up to the russian president. ♪ >> let's bring in our guests, from alexandria, virginia, philip j. crowley, former u.s. assistant secretary of state for public affairs. from brussels, karel lannoo, ceo of the centre for european policy studies. and from moscow, vladimir sotnikov, political scientist at the russian academy of sciences. thank you all for joining us. pj crowley, biden wants to deliver this message that america is back.

but is he planning to bring anything concrete to this g-7 summit and the meetings beyond, other than his slogans and that very impressive vaccine pledge? >> well, the vaccine pledge is very meaningful. but i think first and foremost, it is about bringing relations within the g-7 and beyond back to normal. and normal has two implications. one is without the rancor that we had seen during the trump years, and the other is to help the world get back on its feet in light of the pandemic. these are enormous undertakings. and it will be important for the united states and the other leaders to demonstrate that democracies can deliver results. given the competition, the real competition that does exist in between the west, russia, china.

>> given the priorities, then, is this a sign of more robust american engagement coming in worldwide down the line? or is the priority really to get this normality established? >> i think the united states has engaged. the question is, has it been constructive? for example, when donald trump first went to europe, he suggested that europe owed the united states a great deal of money. when joe biden visits with other nato leaders, i don't think that's going to be part of his lexicon. donald trump hesitated to invoke article five, the nato treaty, that the u.s. would come to the defense of its nato allies. so i do think that constructive engagement is what the biden administration is hoping for. it is meaningful, but as we see with these ambitious plans,

whether we are talking about vaccines, talking about climate, talking about the global economy, a challenge for all of these leaders will be delivering results their people can tangibly feel. >> ok. let's turn to you, karel lannoo. what does the eu want from this g-7 and subsequent meetings with biden that are set to take place in the days that follow? because certainly, yes, the message america is back is being delivered. joe biden is not donald trump, so relations arguably will be slightly easier, but in concrete terms, what does the eu and europe as a whole want to see come out of this summit?de >> the first thing is the assistant secretary justice. that global or corporations of democracies of the world is working, but that the eu is taken serious, and that is why the president of the european council arrived as well with a vaccine pledge to the summit this morning.

saying, look, they will deliver 250 million vaccines to the world. other important issues that have to be discussed are for example the recovery of big finances. there's a very important issue, which is the green deal, the carbon issue. difficult issues to discuss. carbon. there are also other international issues in the agenda, which is china. i think it is extremely important. there's a common line towards china from the g-7. there's also russia. and the preparation of the important putin-biden meeting on wednesday. >> ok. let's turn to russia, then, vladimir sotnikov, joining us from moscow. does russia miss being in the g-7? this must be somewhat painful for vladimir putin, to watch from the sidelines, because of

course, it used to be the g-8 in -- it used to be the g-8, and russia is no longer part of this club. >> what do you mean by saying miss? it was a collective decision. i guess it was several years ago, in 2014, when i was studying the ukrainian crisis over crimea, the g-7 decided to have russia withdrawn from the g-8. so i don't think that russia too much misses this thing, because russia is a self-sufficient country, and despite all the troubles with not being a part of the g-7, or g-8, russia still enjoys its own pace. and enjoys its own policies. >> all the countries in the g7

are self-sufficient, part of the discussions that are going on is to try and present this united front, to tackle the big issues of the day. what is russia hoping for? the g7 obviously is a part now. but russia has got a meeting coming up with joe biden. what is vladimir putin looking to get out of these meetings? is it hoping to jump on the bandwagon, to help join these initiatives, to kickstart the global economy and to fight the pandemic? >> well, you actually raise a very good and important questions, in your asking that. i would like to say that the russian president, vladimir putin, genuinely wants to significantly improve the relationship with the united

states, as well as with g-7 countries. actually, this is a genuine desire. we didn't put any preliminary conditions. we would very much like to develop relations with the european union, g7 countries and the u.s. the ball is in their part of the field, actually. if there is a genuine desire of our partners to improve relationships, not stopping, not pushing russia against, say, the so-called navalny problem, the ukrainian crisis, anything like that, i think that the general desire would be that russia would cooperate with the g7, would cooperate with the

u.s., and eventually, russia would again become, and sometime, i'm not sure -- in some time, i'm not sure it would be soon, that russia would become another partnership country of the g7 or g8. >> crowley, russia appears to be willing to cooperate. they want to be friends again. what's the u.s. approach going into these talks with vladimir putin? >> well, some of the crises that my colleague in moscow mentioned are not so cold, they are quite real. the russian incursion into ukraine, that russia attempts to either poison or jail its political opponents, russian interference in western elections, including the u.s. -- now russia harboring cyber

criminals, enterprises that are extorting money from businesses in the u.s. and elsewhere. i am sure these issues will be on the agenda for joe biden. he will address them forthrightly with vladimir putin. i think we have low expectations as to what is going to come out of this. the reality is, the areas where the two countries can cooperate is drinking. they are still there. arms control would be regional issues, such as getting the parties back to the iran nuclear deal, that may be another, but the areas of conflict between the two countries, and between russia and europe, are realistically expanding, so this is about managing a very difficult relationship in the short to midterm, not improving it. >> from the european perspective, is the eu going to be looking for assurances

from joe biden when it comes to taking the relationship with russia forward? because europe's quite split on this, is it not? certainly the eastern members are keen to make sure there is a strong response to russian actions, but germany is very reliant on russian oil and russian gas. italy as well, they want to rebuild relationships. >> i think on china, they are aligned, but even on china, they are getting closer to the issues. there's a clear pronouncement against violations of human rights in china. also the situation in hong kong, for example. that is clear. on russia, i think we have a common line. certainly if you see the reaction on what's happening, the support from porton to what lukashenko is doing. -- from putin to what lukashenko is doing.

there's some opposition to what he is doing. there's a strong consensus. the problem is, europe is actually happy we have biden in the white house, biden has delivered more than we expected than the beginning, take for example about extending the troops' reach, trump wanted them out of germany. it comforts europe to have security support from the u.s.. however, europe needs to do its part on the side of the troops. this is something that europe

should be aware of. to reduce tariffs on certain goods being imported from the u.s.. >> vladimir sotnikov, our guests say they have a lot of common ground, that they want to put up a strong front against russia. but despite years of this, russia continues its foreign policy. perhaps unabated. does russia feel that the g7 just isn't relevant anymore? russia doesn't fear the sanctions being put on. so what is the point of another strong statement from the g7? is russia bothered at all by what is happening at this summit? >> yeah, that is a good point you raise. russia, i can tell you what russia stands for, what the russian position is to the g7

summit, anything ongoing in belarus, ukrainian crisis, the so-called poisoning of mr. navalny, whatever else. russia that used -- got used to these joint positions. of the u.s. and the european union and the g7. i would be brave to say that russia has idiosyncrasy to these points. this is a point that i agree with. it is a strong statement, on behalf of the g7. but it seems to be irrelevant at the moment. because i think that for russia,

the belarusian crisis, the navalny crisis, the ukrainian crisis, these are the matters that should be tackled. without external interference. >> i'm sure they would agree they should be -- there should be external interference and there shouldn't be russians fighting on their soil. >> well, how can you explain, what is russian interference? >> russian invaded crimea -- russia invaded crimea. russia is supporting the president of belarus. we could have this argument, but let's not have this argument now. this illustrates the differences between the two positions, the position from the u.s. and the eu and the position from russia. you can't even agree on what

crisis actually exists. when you have problems like the coronavirus, tackling climate change, rebounding the global economy, how are any of these issues going to be worked on? do you think, vladimir sotnikov, that common purpose can be found with european and american leaders? >> yes, i think so, actually. let me start all over again. first of all, as you mentioned, with the crisis with crimea, it is irrelevant -- >> i don't want to talk about crimea. i want to talk about the broader issues. because you have one position, and others have other positions. >> i'm sorry for my interruption. let me conclude my point, my

argument, as you said, please. with regards to the coronavirus, the global economy, and other pressing issues, russia actually very well wanted to cooperate with the european union, with the u.s. because for example, the coronavirus crisis, it is a global threat to all humankind. >> thank you very much. pj crowley, with a vaccine pledge made ahead of the g7 summit, can we expect other nations, for example, to tackle climate change? and other measures to help boost the economy? because it is easy to release these statements and wishes, but what concrete action -- are you expecting concrete action to come out from this

summit and the european meetings that will help deliver progress on climate and economic rebound? >> i think there will be discussion of goals. but actually delivering on those is more of a national discussion than an international discussion. this is where domestic politics does have a profound impact on international affairs. the biden administration hopes to use an infrastructure bill to begin the process of weaning the american economy away from fossil fuels, and towards more renewable energy sources. it is unclear at this point what congress is going to deliver. on that bill in a meaningful form that helps the u.s. fulfill

its climate goals. so yes, this is a major challenge for the u.s. and others. once you set the policy aspirations, can you deliver concrete results? that's not going to happen this week, but it certainly needs to happen this year. >> karel, the same point to you, given the internal divisions in the u.s., it could hamper plans for legislation and policies. a similar situation in the eu. do you think anything concrete will happen? four is this a very long and slow road -- or is this a very long and slow road leaders are all on? >> certainly on the green agenda that was just discussed, we are europe is already -- where europe is already very well advanced. members at the united nations level are working on climate

change. the g7 want to make concrete steps to make sure they have results. there are many things on that level which have to be tackled. europe is the only jurisdiction in the world which has an emissions system that is working at the moment. the emissions costs have increased, showing the system works. we need to expand this. there's one very difficult thing related to that. if others do not have a carbon price, will we have what we call a carbon border adjustment meccas him to tackle this? -- mechanism to tackle this? that could hinder national trade if we don't have an agreement. if europe tries to from its side

to some the on climate change and others do not do it, we have friction for international trade. there are also other elements. china is making steps on the climate change agenda. this will have to be combined with taking the same position from the g7. more positions related to human rights. >> we are in the final minutes of this debate. china has been the elephant in the room here. vladimir, do you think people should be talking with china more, to tackle these issues, before any progress can be made? >> yes, i think so. you are correct. my point is that, actually, no one can prevent the position of china. the united states and the european union and the g7 should talk more to china, first of all

, -- first of all, to diminish any fears that china could do something, or is a threat. secondly, just understand the position of china and try to negotiate, and to have an agreement on this global -- on these global issues, like my colleagues have mentioned. >> i'm afraid we are out of time. i would like to thank all of our -- all of my guests, pj crowley, karel lannoo, and vladimir sotnikov. and thank you, too, for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website, aljazeera.com, and for further discussion, go to our facebook page, that's facebook.com/ajinsidestory. you can also join the conversation on twitter, our handle is @ajinsidestory. from me and the whole team, it's bye for now. ♪

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