The Group of Seven foreign ministers expressed concern Sunday about China's "coercive" economic policies in what critics call "debt-trap" diplomacy toward developing countries, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.
The ministers also discussed "the situations in Hong Kong and Xinjiang," where Beijing has been accused of human rights abuses, and the "importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," according to a statement issued by Britain, the G7 chair, after their two-day talks in Liverpool, England.
In a separate statement, the G7 ministers and their counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, who attended a part of the meeting, reaffirmed their "shared interest in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region," in a veiled counter to China's attempts to alter the regional status quo with its growing military and economic clout.