1. The 2^nd Group of Seven (G7) Sherpa Meeting was held in a virtual format on March 30 to prepare for the 2021 G7 Summit (Cornwall, the United Kingdom, June 11-13). G7 Sherpa Choi Kyong-lim attended the Meeting as the representative of Korea.

2. The Sherpas of the G7 member states and the guest countries (Republic of Korea, Australia, India, and South Africa) discussed cooperation among democratic countries, joint response to climate change, and health issues, mainly on COVID-19 responses.

o The UK, the G7 president for this year and the host of the 26^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, introduced key issues and deliverables to be addressed at this year’s G7 Summit.

o The United States and Italy briefly explained their plans for the Leaders Summit on Climate to be held in April and the Global Health Summit to be held in May as hosts.

o The participating countries discussed ways to promote such values as democracy, human rights, freedom of the press, and free market economy; international collaboration in ensuring equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines; strengthening cooperation among countries and the public-private partnership to effectively prevent future pandemics; and expanding climate finance to achieve the international community’s goals in climate change.

3. Sherpa Choi stated that Korea will contribute actively to resolving key global issues at this year’s G7 Summit, and explained the health and climate change policies that the Korean government is pursuing, while expressing the Korean government’s commitment to increasing its contributions in the above areas.

o Particularly, Sherpa Choi stressed that Korea will make efforts to ensure that the 2021 P4G Seoul Summit to be held in late May plays an important role as a stepping stone to the COP26.

4. The Korean government will continue to seek ways to contribute to the G7 Summit agenda based upon discussions through the interagency taskforce for the G7 Summit 2021.