There will be pictures of Scott Morrison and Joe Biden locked in a clinch, hands clutching elbows, faces beaming. But in the case of this G7, weary cynicism is misplaced. The meeting of the leaders of the world's most economically powerful democracies matters.

The backdrop is the rise of the non-democracies. China is increasingly powerful militarily and increasingly assertive of that power. Russia is moving ever further from being a democracy. It shamelessly imprisons opponents of Mr Putin.

Russian agents travel to democracies to kill opponents with impunity. And those anti-democratic tendencies are mimicked in less powerful countries, from Turkey to Brazil to Hungary.

Even in the US, followers of former president Donald Trump examine ways of defying the will of the majority in future elections.

So this G7 matters as an assertion of democracy, that least imperfect type of government. It matters because of the anti-democratic forces pushing the other way all over the world, but also because it comes after the disarray of the Trump presidency when American leadership seemed wayward and unpredictable.

This summit is a chance to tell Beijing and Moscow (and Budapest and Ankara) that, whatever the differences on policy, these powerful countries are anchored together on the broad aims and values.

With all the talk of the rise of China, we should remember that Australia, the US, Canada, Japan, the UK and the European Union countries still produce nearly half of the world's output.

After the disruption of the Trump years, Mr Morrison wants global bodies to come back to centre stage, particularly the World Trade Organisation.

On this, Mr Morrison will find no opponents in Cornwall. But it is not so clear that he is in similar accord on climate change, the big issue on which Australia is now perceived as tardy. If Mr Biden puts the pressure on, for how long can Mr Morrison hold out?

Politically astute Mr Morrison should realise which way the new wind is blowing.