The G-7 may not have evolved into a permanent Democratic 10 (D10), but last weekend’s summit in Cornwall demonstrated the value of U.S. President Joe Biden’s multilateralist approach to China. Not only are liberal democracies more united, but the now have before them a practical initiative to rival Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
In the runup to this year’s G-7 meeting, there was speculation that the meeting of leaders from the world’s leading democracies would be the launch pad for a D10 grouping. With the United Kingdom hosting, Prime Minister Boris Johnson took the initiative to invite fellow democracies Australia, India, and South Korea to the summit (subsequently, South Africa was also invited to join). The D10, as envisioned by Johnson’s team, would address issues relating to supply chains and 5G telecommunications.
While both issues are intrinsically linked to China, proposers of the D10 nevertheless insisted that it would not be an anti-China alliance. Yet such denials, genuine or not, failed to convince those cautious European nations keen to preserve their own distinctive, and less combative, approach to Beijing. These early signals should have made it clear that a formal D10 was not in the cards.
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