AS I write this column, G7 leaders are continuing their meeting in Cornwall to discuss our shared battle against the continuing threat of Coronavirus as well as the looming crisis of our times in the form of the climate emergency.

Readers will have seen the images of President Biden’s plane landing in the United Kingdom for the first foreign trip of his Presidency, and Carrie Johnson introducing First Lady Jill Biden to one-year-old Wilfred on a Cornish beach.

After the year we’ve endured, it’s refreshing to see pictures like these indicate that we are at long last on the road back to normality.

Summits like the G7 aren’t just an opportunity to take photos though, they are key decision-making moments where world leaders convene and seek agreement on the common challenges that we are all going to have to tackle going forward.

As the host of this year’s G7, it was absolutely right that the Prime Minister identified Covid and climate change as two of the most important challenges facing the globe in the coming months and years.

As we’ve known all along, infectious viruses don’t respect manmade borders or boundaries on a map. This is why it’s absolutely crucial that our vaccine success here at home is shared with other countries abroad to enable us all to share in a worldwide recovery from this disease.

As we head towards the moment when every adult in the UK will have been offered a vaccine, I was pleased to see the Prime Minister marshal support for a pledge of one billion doses from G7 countries including a commitment of 100 million surplus vaccines from the UK within the next year.

While there is clearly more to be done, this represents a vital first step in what should be the world’s common endeavour to beat this pandemic for good and ensure everyone – no matter where they live – has access to the protection they deserve.

I was also pleased to see the Prime Minister put action to limit global warming at the heart of the G7’s agenda. Ahead of Glasgow’s hosting of COP26, the UK Government’s ambitious proposals – modelled on the principles of the Marshall Plan which helped rebuild Europe’s economy after the Second World War – seeks agreement from the world’s richest countries to support large scale renewable energy projects across Africa and parts of Asia.

Alongside my colleague Annie Wells MSP, I have written to the President of COP26 – Alok Sharma MP – offering whatever support he may require to ensure a successful conference in our city in November.

Whether it be leading the agenda for Covid recovery at the G7, or pushing for climate action at COP26, our position at the top table of international relations gives the United Kingdom a key platform with which to pursue our own strategic interests as well as build momentum globally for action on the causes we care about.

When the Prime Minister talks about ‘Global Britain’ this is precisely what he means – the United Kingdom using our influence to both seek new opportunities for our own people as well as working to affect positive change in the world. It is wrong, as some in Scotland are at pains to say that the position of the United Kingdom – whether at the UN Security Council or the G7 – makes no difference to the people of Scotland. That is a regressive and insular view of the world and one that I reject.

Instead, I believe that a proud Scotland at the heart of a strong United Kingdom is our best hope for a safe and prosperous future. The decisions made by the Prime Minister alongside other world leaders at the G7 will prove that.