(Tokyo) The G7 foreign ministers, meeting in Tokyo, assured Wednesday that the group would remain “united” in its “firm support” for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, “even in the current international situation », a reference to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
They also affirmed their desire to continue to jointly impose “severe sanctions” on Moscow, to accelerate Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts in the “medium and long terms” and to “work towards a peace process” with other international partners, according to a press release from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ukraine increasingly fears a weariness of its supporters, while its counter-offensive launched in June has produced only very limited results so far and the probability of a long war of attrition increases.
It is important for the G7 to make clear to the international community that its commitment to supporting Ukraine “will never run out of steam”, even if a new conflict in the Middle East has broken out, according to the Japanese Minister of Affairs foreigners Yoko Kamikawa reported in the press release.
The heads of diplomacy of the main democracies on the planet also “strongly condemned” the transfers of North Korean arms to Russia, recalling that they were “in direct violation” of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
They further condemned North Korea’s repeated firing of ballistic missiles, according to the Japanese host.
The meeting in mid-September between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the midst of a rapprochement, had stoked Western fears that Pyongyang could provide Moscow with weapons for its military operations in Ukraine.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul had already condemned such deliveries last month, with South Korea estimating last week that more than a million artillery shells had already been supplied by Pyongyang to its Russian ally.
“Humanitarian pauses” in Gaza
The members of the G7 (United States, Japan, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Canada) also seek on Wednesday to find a consensus to call for humanitarian pauses in Gaza, ravaged for a month by the conflict between Israel and the Hamas.
According to a diplomatic source interviewed by AFP on Wednesday, there were “constructive exchanges” on the subject on Tuesday, the first day of the meeting. “Great unity” also seems to emerge on the need to “urgently” increase humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, this source added.
During a dinner Tuesday with his counterparts, Mr.me Kamikawa considered that the G7 should “call on all countries concerned to carry out humanitarian pauses and guarantee access for humanitarian aid” to Gaza, according to a previous press release from his ministry.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the G7 must speak “with one clear voice” on the conflict triggered by the bloody incursion of the Palestinian Islamist movement into Israeli territory on October 7.
Mr. Blinken also had a bilateral meeting Tuesday evening in Tokyo with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna. France has so far called for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza.
The massive reprisals by the Israeli army in Gaza since the attack a month ago have left more than 10,000 dead there, including many civilians including more than 4,000 children, according to the Hamas health ministry.
Despite calls from the UN and numerous NGOs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any “general ceasefire” in Gaza until the approximately 240 hostages held by Hamas since October 7 have been released. been released.
Asked about possible “tactical pauses” in the fighting, an option suggested to him by American President Joe Biden, Mr. Netanyahu estimated that “we have already had them”, in an interview with the American channel ABC News.
Mr. Netanyahu also declared that his country would have “overall responsibility for the security” of the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period once the war with Hamas ended.
The United States, however, indicated on Tuesday that it would oppose a new long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel.