国际英语新闻:G-7 Leaders Affirm Russia Sanctions

The G-7 committed to lift 500 million people out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.  And based largely on an initiative by the summit host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leaders promised to expand opportunities for women to gain the knowledge and skills they need to provide for their families.  They want one third more women to have a vocational education by 2030.
 
Casual observers often dismiss the long list of G-7 pledges, but the global G8 Research Group says the leaders tends to fulfill about 75 percent of their pledges, and made 82 percent in the past year. The group’s director, Professor John Kirton of the University of Toronto, told VOA, “They do tend to keep the promises they collectively make.”
 
“The G-7 still controls the overwhelming share of the capabilities that count,” Kirton said.  “Overwhelmingly, it’s G-7 currencies that are used every second of every day in international transactions and trade.  And when you need to engage in military intervention to stop aggression, annexation, to stop genocide in Europe or elsewhere, it’s the G-7 that does the job.”
 
Kirton added, “It is still the only summit level global governance institution that has as its distinctive mission the global promotion of the values of open democracy, individual liberty -- that’s Human Rights -- and social advance.  Those are the values we know that almost all of the citizens in all of the countries want.  And the G-7 is the only club that is championing those, and making considerable success.”

Obama said the G-7 exists in part, “to stand up for the fundamental principles that we share as democracies, for freedom, for peace, for the right of nations and peoples to decide their own destiny, for universal Human Rights and the dignity of every human being.”