With the invitation of five "partner countries" to the G7 summit in Elmau, the German Chancellor created a new format - which had its cause in the break in the previous world order by the Russian war of aggression, but also found its cause in the more far-reaching constraints of the global crises, which can only be mastered in larger forms of cooperation.

Before the end of the Elmau summit, these "G12", i.e. the G7 representatives and their guests from Argentina, India, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa, had already committed themselves in a separate joint declaration to the will to increase the strength and resilience of their democracies strengthen “and work towards just, comprehensive and sustainable solutions to global challenges”.

This applies, for example, to climate change, or the corona pandemic.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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At the same time, those involved affirmed that they remained committed to the "rules-based international order".

This joint declaration only indirectly referred to the current threat to the international order posed by Russia, stating, for example, that as democracies the signatory countries respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other states, they support the peaceful resolution of conflicts and reject the threat or application from violence in all cases that are not in accordance with international law, protected human rights, strengthened international organizations and developed new technologies in accordance with democratic principles for the benefit of mankind.

However, despite these general common principles, some of the important emerging countries invited were not prepared to support or join the sanctions of western states against the Russian aggressor.

Chancellor Scholz openly expressed this dissent after the round of talks with the invited states: "We look at the war in Ukraine from different perspectives, we all know that".

Nevertheless, Scholz described the talks with the five partner countries as "very good and open".

In a subtle distinction, he spoke of the five states as “democracies of the future and with a future”.

The joint declaration of intent by the 12 countries, to which the EU has joined as a separate institution, contains joint initiatives and commitments ranging from the fight against climate change - including a "fair and just" transition to renewable energy - to global initiatives on public debt -lowering is enough.

The joint paper is also dedicated to the internal challenges of democratic societies.

The signatory countries undertake to promote and preserve freedom of the media and freedom of expression, to protect the Internet as an "open, free, global, networked, reliable and secure" medium.

They want to increase the transparency of online platforms and work together to "counter information manipulation and promote reliable sources of information".

Further (self-) commitments by the signatories relate to the promotion of civil society in the countries concerned, the support of academic freedom and the announcement to strengthen the resilience of democracies against “malicious foreign interference and acts of transnational repression that attempt to destroy trust in government, society and undermine media, restrict public liberties and stifle criticism".