BIARRITZ, France, Aug 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – World leaders at the G7 summit
have agreed to help the countries affected by the huge wildfires ravaging the
Amazon rainforest as soon as possible , French President Emmanuel Macron said
Sunday.
“We are all agreed on helping those countries which have been hit by the
fires as fast as possible,” he told journalists at the summit in the
southwestern French resort of Biarritz.
Ahead of the gathering, Macron called on world leaders to hold urgent
talks on the wildfires ripping through the world’s largest rainforest,
pledging “concrete measures” to tackle it.
Although about 60 percent of the Amazon is in Brazil, the vast forest also
takes in parts of eight other countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French
Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
“This morning, Colombia called on the international community (to help),
so we must help out,” he said.
“Our teams are making contact with all the Amazon countries so we can
finalise some very concrete commitments involving technical resources and
funding.”
Macron’s bid to put the Amazon crisis high on the agenda at the G7 angered
Brazil’s far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who lashed out over what he sees as
outside interference, denouncing the French leader’s “colonialist mentality”.