Politics

Japan Plans G7 foreign ministers meeting at Munich conference

Tokyo, Feb 14 (EFE).- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tuesday he would travel Friday to Germany to participate in the Munich Security Conference, adding he would also organize a G7 foreign ministers meeting.

Hayashi will participate in the conference where 50 heads of state or governments are expected to attend, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, and where the Russian invasion of Ukraine is expected to be one of the central themes.

Hayashi would speak at a panel on the Indo-Pacific about Japan’s new national security strategy approved by the country at the end of last year, the minister announced Tuesday at a press conference.

“(Japan) is coordinating to hold the first meeting of G7 foreign ministers under the Japanese presidency,” said Hayashi, without giving further details.

Local media said the Japanese government’s idea is to hold the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting Saturday in Germany, while the conference takes place from Friday to Sunday in Munich.

Japan, which chairs the rotating G7 presidency this year, aims to “emphasize the importance of a rules-based international order” during G7 meetings, Hayashi said.

The Japanese government also plans to convene a video call among G7 leaders on Feb. 24, the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Japanese media reports, although this information hasn’t been officially confirmed.

Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, plans to invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States to the meeting.

Japan will host the face-to-face summit of G7 leaders in May in Hiroshima, an appointment in which the hosts hope to send a message of unity against Russia’s occupation of Ukraine and in favor of denuclearization.

The meeting would serve to reaffirm the G7’s support for Kyiv and its condemnation of Moscow, as well as to seek additional ways of financial aid to Ukraine.EFE

ahg-yk/lds

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