The leaders of the G7 countries began arriving in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, a symbol of peace, on Thursday to discuss the strengthening of sanctions against Russia and measures to protect against “economic coercion” from China.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will welcome the leaders of the six other major industrialized democracies from Friday to Sunday in this city destroyed by an American atomic bomb in 1945 and today home to many monuments for peace.
The leaders of the G7 member countries (United States, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada) will try to present a united front against Russia and China, but also on other strategic issues where their interests are not always perfectly aligned.
US President Joe Biden arrived in Japan on Thursday afternoon, becoming the second sitting president to visit Hiroshima after Barack Obama in 2016.
The invasion of Ukraine launched by Russia 15 months ago is expected to dominate the agenda.
On the sidelines of a meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Biden said on Thursday that the G7 stands for “common values, including support for the Ukrainian people who defend their sovereign territory and the responsibility of Russia for its brutal aggression”.
The United States and its allies have increased arms shipments to Ukraine, whose President Volodymyr Zelensky is to attend the summit by videoconference.
Nuclear disarmament
According to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the talks should focus in particular on the tightening of sanctions against Moscow which led to a contraction of the Russian economy in the first quarter of 2023.
It is also a question of “knowing how we can avoid circumventing the sanctions”, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday to the press, adding: “I think that this question will be resolved very well, and in a very pragmatic way”.
According to an official of the European Union, an organization that participates in the G7, the heads of state and government will also discuss sanctions against the trade in Russian diamonds.
“We believe that Russian exports in this sector should be limited,” said the official, refusing to give a timetable and adding that it was unlikely that the G7 would reach a final agreement in Japan.
Mr. Putin’s repeated threats to turn the war in Ukraine into a nuclear conflict have been condemned without appeal by the leaders of the G7 and are seen by some observers as an attempt to shake the resolve of Europeans and Americans.
The leaders’ planned visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is expected to underscore these threats, where on August 6, 1945, the city was largely destroyed by a US atomic bomb, killing 140,000 people.
Mr. Kishida, whose family is originally from Hiroshima and who is himself elected there, wishes to use this summit to encourage his guests, in particular the United Kingdom, France and the United States, which together have thousands of nuclear warheads, to commit to being transparent about their stockpiles and reducing their arsenals.
Many military and diplomatic leaders, including six former heads of state, also urged nuclear powers on Wednesday to set aside tensions and negotiate arms control measures.
But amid heightened tensions with other nuclear powers Russia, North Korea and China, hopes for progress in this area are dim.
“Economic coercion”
The G7 should also devote a large part of its discussions to China, and in particular to the means of protecting itself from possible economic blackmail by Beijing, by diversifying production and supply chains, while the Chinese government is willing to use trade barriers.
For Mr. Sullivan, the leaders of the G7 should denounce this “economic coercion” and strive to overcome transatlantic differences on the position to adopt vis-à-vis China.
But European countries, particularly France and Germany, are keen to ensure that eliminating risk does not mean cutting ties with China, one of the world’s biggest markets.
It is “not an anti-Chinese G7”, insisted the Elysée before the summit, wishing “a positive message” of cooperation “provided that we negotiate together”.
Japan has also invited eight third-party countries, including major emerging economies such as India and Brazil, to Hiroshima in an attempt to rally some reluctant leaders to oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine and rising military ambitions. from Beijing.