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News > Germany

G7 Summit: UK to Send More Military Trainers to Iraq

  • G7 leaders during a working session in Bavaria, Germany

    G7 leaders during a working session in Bavaria, Germany | Photo: German Foreign Office

Published 7 June 2015
Opinion

The United Kingdom is the second largest contributor of airstrikes in war-torn Iraq.

The United Kingdom's Prime Minister David Cameron announced Sunday that his government will send 125 military trainers to Iraq, to help fight the Islamic State group.

The prime minister made the announcement during the G7 Summit, which gathers the world's most advanced economies (United States, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada) taking place in Bavaria, Germany.

"I think the biggest challenge that we face in terms of the effect on Britain and the challenge in the world is fighting extremist Islamist terror, particularly obviously in Iraq and Syria, but more broadly,” Cameron said, according to BBC.

"We're already the second largest contributor in terms of airstrikes in Iraq. We're providing a whole host of support to the Syrian opposition,” the prime minister added.

Amongst other pressing world issues, the agenda for the summit was dominated by Ukraine, the Greek economy, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the fight against the Islamic State group.

According to The Guardian, Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European commission, angrily blamed Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for the faltering negotiations.

Juncker told reporters he was willing to negotiate with the Greek government over the bailout talks but, he claimed, they had not presented proposals to him.

His remarks come after Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis published an op-ed calling for German President Angela Merkel to show Athens a glimmer of hope by ending demands for austerity, as the US did with Berlin after the Second World War.

Merkel and the French president, François Hollande, phoned Tsipras over the weekend and agreed to hold a meeting in Brussels next Wednesday.

Ahead of the summit, U.S. officials said they were determined to send a strong message to Moscow regarding the situation in Ukraine, where the conflict between Kiev and rebel forces in the east has intensified in recent days.

“We need to maintain the pressure, show that there cannot be cracks in the transatlantic unity, and show that the costs are just going to continue to grow for Russia,” said Benjamin Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser for U.S. President Barack Obama.

On Sunday, Obama urged his G7 counterparts to act in support of Ukraine by “standing up to Russian aggression.”

German president and host Angela Merkel announced that the final declaration signed by the G7 members will include a long-term commitment to limiting global warming.

The move is strategic since world leaders will discuss measures to slow climate change in an upcoming United Nations summit set for December this year.

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