BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson greeted world leaders on a wooden boardwalk on the freshly raked sand of Carbis Bay to open the Group of Seven summit on Friday, offering elbow bumps to dignitaries gathering for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The virus was set to dominate their discussions, with leaders of the wealthy democracies club expected to commit to sharing at least 1 billion vaccine shots with struggling countries.

A commitment from US President Joe Biden to share 500 million doses and one from Johnson for another 100 million shots set the stage for the G7 meeting in South-West England, where the focus is “Building Back Better From COVID-19.”

“We’re going to help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners,” Biden said.

The G7 also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The leaders hope that the meeting in the resort of Carbis Bay will also energise the global economy. They are set to formally embrace a global minimum tax of at least 15 per cent on corporations, following an agreement reached a week ago by their Finance Ministers.

For Johnson, the first G7 summit in two years — last year’s was scuttled by the pandemic — is a chance to set out his vision of a post-Brexit “Global Britain” as a midsized country with an outsized role in international problem-solving.

Climate change is also a top issue on the agenda, and hundreds of protesters gathered in Cornwall to urge the leaders to take action. Some activists sent a barge floating off the coast that was carrying large inflatable figures depicting Biden and Johnson.