G7 leaders on Tuesday condemned China’s “non-transparent and market-distorting” international trade practices in an end-of-summit statement billed as “unprecedented” by the United States.

The statement, which also pledged to reduce “strategic dependencies” on China, came hours before the leaders join a larger group of their counterparts at a NATO summit in Madrid.

There, the 30-member alliance was also poised to toughen its stance against Beijing in an update of its “strategic concept”.

The United States has long cast a wary eye at China over its trade practices, which Washington believes are designed to accord an unfair advantage to Chinese companies over foreign firms.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Beijing’s refusal to distance itself from Vladimir Putin has prompted other countries, including export giant Germany, to also reconsider their economic reliance on the Asian giant.

Beijing’s increasingly strident claims over much of the South China Sea has also sparked alarm over its military ambitions.

In their closing statement following a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps, the G7 leaders signalled that they would seek to extricate themselves from economic dependence on China.