Group of Seven (G7) financial leaders recently promised to give low- and middle-income countries a bigger role in the diversification of supply chains in order to help them become more resilient. Additionally, the leaders pledged to maintain the stability of the global financial system despite recent banking turmoils.

In an April 12 statement, G7 finance ministers and central bank governors said they were committed to “jointly empowering low- and middle-income countries to play bigger roles in supply chains through mutually beneficial cooperation, by combining finance, knowledge, and partnership, which will help contribute to sustainable development and enhance supply chain resilience globally.”

According to Al Jazeera, G7 finance ministers said supply chains needed to “achieve efficiency and resilience” in order to maintain macroeconomic stability while making other financial systems more sustainable. The statement cited a “need to diversify the ‘highly concentrated’ supply chains for clean energy technologies.”

“In this endeavor, we will stand firm to protect our shared values while preserving economic efficiency by upholding the free, fair, and rules-based multi-lateral system and international cooperation,” the finance leaders said.

The statement did not directly mention China. However, Al Jazeera claimed that the supply chain language used by G7 leaders aligns with efforts by industrial democracies to work together to become “less reliant” on China for various strategic goods.

While discussing the statement, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki explained that while the language was not specifically directed at China, the G7 group believes that a high concentration of supply chains in any single country is undesirable.