1. The 1st Group of Seven (G7) Sherpa Meeting was held in a virtual format on February 3 to prepare for the 2021 G7 Summit (Cornwall, the United Kingdom, June 11-13), which Korea will join at the invitation of the UK, the G7 president for this year. G7 Sherpa Choi Kyong-lim attended the Meeting as the representative of Korea.

2. In the Meeting, the UK, the G7 president, announced that “Build back better for all” has been chosen as the theme of the 2021 G7 Summit and put forward key areas of work to strengthen cooperation among the G7 member states and the guest countries (Korea, Australia and India) in such fields as health, climate change, development, and cooperation among democratic countries, and to present a G7 vision for an inclusive and sustainable post-COVID-19 era.

3. Ambassador Choi mentioned that Korea will contribute actively for the success of the 2021 G7 Summit as a guest country, and participated in the discussion including by introducing Korean policies for recovery from COVID-19 and response to climate change.

° The Ambassador underscored the need to step up support for the COVAX Facility and other multilateral mechanisms for overcoming COVID-19 and to strengthen the World Health Organization (WHO), the need to maintain and reinforce free trade, and the need to strengthen cyberspace governance in response to fake news.

° The Ambassador introduced Korea’s Green New Deal as a strategy for environmentally-sustainable recovery from COVID-19 and its plans on the 2^nd Partnering for Green Growth and Global Goals 2030 (P4G) Summit, which Korea will host in May 2021 to respond actively to climate change with the international community.

4. The participating countries shared the understanding that the G7 needs to exercise leadership and continue increasing support in order to overcome COVID-19, build a better society, and respond to climate change, needs to intensify cooperation in diverse areas in order to safeguard and expand democratic values, and needs to strengthen and support the approach to realizing gender equality in discussions across the G7 tracks.

5. The next G7 Sherpa Meeting will take place in late March. The Korean government will seek ways to contribute to advancing agenda and set its position for constructive discussions at the Summit through activities of the interagency taskforce on the G7.