Security bill of G7 summit likely to exceed 70 million pounds: report

LONDON, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The security cost of hosting the Group of Seven (G7) summit next week in Britain is likely to exceed 70 million pounds (about 99 million U.S. dollars), British media reported Saturday.

The local Devon and Cornwall police will be joined by more than 5,000 officers from around Britain in the area's "largest security operation in history" when the leaders of the G7 countries gather in the southwestern seaside resort of Carbis Bay in Cornwall, England, on June 11-13, The Guardian newspaper reported.

Around 6,500 police will secure the event at Carbis Bay, the reported said.

High steel fences have already been put up in the Cornish seaside resort to help protect the G7 leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden on his first overseas trip after his inauguration.

Roads will be closed and security checkpoints placed across the county, starting from Wednesday next week at Newquay airport, Falmouth, where media will be based, and to secure designated official protest sites, according to the report.

The security cost of the previous equivalent meeting, the G8 in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, held in 2013 was put at 75 million pounds (about 106 million U.S. dollars).

Campaigners led by the Resist G7 Coalition, an umbrella group for protesters, said it was "the G7 that is costing money, not the protesters", adding that police were adding to costs by their approach to the event.

"As part of its operation, Devon and Cornwall police created four 'designated protest' sites that were out of the way, with no relevance to the G7. Resist G7 and other protest groups made it clear that "we would boycott these sites," a spokesperson said.

Demonstrators have been told they can gather in four designated protesting sites, including one in Exeter, which is more than 160 km away.

Leaders of the G7, Britain, the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy, plus the European Union, will gather in Carbis Bay for the first in-person G7 summit in almost two years. It will also be the first major in-person summit held by Britain after Brexit.

Britain, which holds the rotating G7 presidency, also invited Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa as guest countries to this year's meeting. Economic recovery, global vaccine rollout and climate change are expected to be among the issues to be discussed during the meeting.