is steven lang, a chief diplomatic correspondent to europe at the new york times, and welcome to all 3 of you. thank you very much for being on al jazeera, steven, if i can uh, begin with your place. i mean, this has been described as one of the strongest condemnations by the g 7. i mean, how surprised are you with the g 7 statement, especially? it's the written us towards beijing. oh, i'm not terribly surprised. i mean one fights about language constantly and statements have a certain value. i wouldn't take them too seriously, but the united states is still the most powerful member of the g 7. and joe biden has been quite tough on china in a way. so it was donald trump, i mean there's a recognition in the united states that china is a pure rival. and it has emissions in the pacific which challenge american interest there. and europe is called as, as you and your reporter said, you know, more difficult players, but they are opinion as has also discovered with covered and also in a way, whether it's dependency on russia, that it doesn't want to be as dependent for trade for goods for s