From this Friday to Sunday, the Group of Seven forum will take place in Japan (G7), an event that brings together the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; as well as the presence of the European Union and Ukraine as “unlisted members”.
The central theme of the discussion will be the Russia’s military campaign against kyiv, the nuclear threat, and the quest to curb China’s role in the region.
(Also: G7 announces new sanctions to ‘make Russia pay’ for war in Ukraine)
Nuclear disarmament
The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, wants nuclear disarmament to be one of the major issues at the summit, which he is hosting, and to this end he took his G7 colleagues around the facilities dedicated to pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of people who perished in the bomb dropped by the United States over the city on August 6, 1945.
We reaffirm our commitment to the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons
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In the midst of a commemoration of the horrors and catastrophe that nuclear weapons can unleash on the world, G7 leaders on Friday expressed concern over China’s buildup of a nuclear arsenal “without dialogue,” which they said is “a concern for global and regional stability.”
The Group of Seven unveiled that position in a joint communiqué at the end of a working dinner behind closed doors on diplomacy and security.
“China’s accelerated buildup of its nuclear arsenal without transparency or meaningful dialogue raises concern for global and regional stability,” said the text that refers to the Hiroshima Plan as a possible dialogue sheet.
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In this sensethe G7 leaders urged China and Russia to participate substantively in relevant multilateral and bilateral fora, in line with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“The NPT must be defined as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and the basis for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” the leaders said in the statement.
The leaders thus closed ranks with respect to this treaty, which entered into force in 1970 and which is much less ambitious than the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
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This treaty, which no member of the group has ratified, cIt contains prohibitions on the development, production, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, and seeks to send a clearer and stronger message than the NPT.
The G7 leaders thus reaffirmed their commitment to “achieve a world free of nuclear weapons” and pointed out that the NPT “is the only way” to achieve it and welcomed the performance of several of its members, such as the United States, France and the United Kingdom, by providing data on their nuclear weapons capacity.
“We reaffirm our commitment to the ultimate goal of a world without weapons nuclear with security for all without prejudice, achieved through a realistic, pragmatic and responsible approach,” the text highlighted.
Support for Ukraine and more sanctions to “make Russia pay”
“We are imposing more sanctions and measures to increase the cost to Russia and to those who support its war effort”the leaders said in their statement, in which they also renewed their commitment to support Ukraine at the financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic levels.
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will cooperate with
other key countries
The G7 detailed some of its “coordinated sanctions” and other economic measures to cut off Moscow’s funding channels and its use of products and materials that can be used in the military industry, including restrictions on “new key sectors” such as construction, transportation and business.
In a joint statement published after a meeting dedicated to Ukraine, the G7 leaders announced measures to “deprive Russia of technologythe industrial equipment and services of the G7 that sustain their war machine” in Ukraine.
The package includes restrictions on exports of goods “critical to Russia on the battlefield”, as well as measures against entities accused of bringing materiel to the front for the benefit of Moscow.
If they stop buying them in one place, they start buying them in another
The United States set the tone hours earlier by announcing new sanctions against Moscow, to restrict its access to “products necessary for their combat capabilities”, as stated by a senior White House official. Specifically, Washington will ban US exports to 70 entities in Russia and other countries.
(More information: Russia responds to the US and prohibits 500 Americans from entering the country, including Obama)
The new measures will also try to prevent Russia from circumventing existing sanctions, what it means to work with third countries “through which G7-restricted goods, services and technologies can be supplied” to Moscow.
In general terms, the Group of Seven explained that its new actions seek to cut off the access of Moscow to the international financial system and “limit its energy income and future extraction capacities,” according to the statement.
They also stressed their willingness to continue reducing their dependence on Russian energy and other raw materials, and to reduce the income Russia earns from the diamond trade, for which “it will cooperate with other key countries” in this sector with a view to applying “future restrictive measures”.
The Kremlin minimizes sanctions
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov played down the impact of EU and UK sanctions against the Russian diamond trade.
“As practice shows with other merchandise, with other products. If they stop buying from one place, they start buying from another. There are no loopholes in this,” he declared at his daily press conference.
(Continue reading: Russia announces the shipment of “humanitarian” military equipment to the Nicaraguan Army)
According to the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, “the world market is very mobile and rich in alternative directions.”
So far, three of the G7 members (Canada, UK and USA) have imposed sanctions on the Russian entity Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of diamonds and a significant source of revenue for the Kremlin since it is partly owned by the Russian state.
However, these sanctions have hardly harmed Alrosa, since they only affect diamonds that have been processed in Russia, while those that are exported rough and modified in other countries are not subject to sanctions, which constitutes the vast majority of Russian diamonds.
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Russian diamond exports in 2021 amounted to about 4.6 billion euros, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, linked to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States).
G7 seeks to curb China’s ‘economic duress’
The G7 leaders will announce this Saturday, during the second day of their summit in Hiroshima, new tools to curb the “economic coercion” of China and other countries, a senior US official told reporters.
According to this source, the leaders will address the economic security of the group during one of the forum sessions and will talk about Beijing’s “coercive” attitude when it comes to dealing with its international trade from a dominant position as a supplier of certain key components for various industries.
At the end of the session, a joint communiqué will be issued mentioning a “series of tools” that the G7 will start using to address common concerns about China’s trade practices and other countries, according to the aforementioned official.
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In line with this, Biden has announced measures to restrict technology sharing with Chinasuch as the restrictions announced in October 2022 to limit Beijing’s ability to produce advanced microchips, crucial in fields such as artificial intelligence.
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The G7 powers have been broaching the issue of China for months in ministerial meetings prior to the leaders’ summit, which began this Friday and will conclude on Sunday.
He #G7 The Hiroshima Summit focuses on the world economy
The seven are expected to announce more #sanctions against Russia.
The war in Ukraine and the growing influence of China in the international arena will also be present on the agenda.#DWNews /cmw pic.twitter.com/7sFiaqSiym
— DW Spanish (@dw_espanol) May 19, 2023
the search for peace
In the six-page joint communiqué, the idea of achieving a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace” occupies a prominent place: it appeared as the second of the eleven sections of the brief.
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Specificallythe G7 considered that a “just peace” cannot be achieved without the “complete and unconditional withdrawal” of the Russian troopsalthough as on other occasions the group avoided specifically committing to the recovery by Ukraine of Russian-occupied territories such as the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
The G7 leaders, however, reaffirmed their commitment to the proposals to achieve peace what the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, has done.
Zelensky plans to travel to Japan to participate in person at the G7 summit. InitiallyZelensky was to intervene by videoconference at the summitscheduled from Friday to Sunday.
Now he will have the opportunity to reiterate in Japan his order of fighter planes to better repel the Russian invasion, a demand that he already formulated during his recent European tour and that already has the approval of several European nations such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Santiago Andres Venera Salazar
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
With information from AFP and EFE
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