2023-05-16 15:16:53
A G7 summit in Hiroshima to press Russia and unite against China: “It’s not an anti-Chinese G7, provided that we negotiate together”
The leaders of the G7 meet this week in Hiroshima (western Japan) to toughen their tone against Russia, fifteen months after the start of its invasion of Ukraine, and adopt a common line vis-à-vis the superpower Chinese.
The three-day summit, starting Friday, of major industrialized democracies will cover everything from energy to artificial intelligence, but the focus will be on loopholes allowing Moscow to mitigate the impact of sanctions of the G7 on its economy. According to the French presidency, we must at all costs prevent the sanctions, “which have a cost for our economies”be “circumvented for the benefit of others”.
It’s not “not an anti-Chinese G7”insisted the Elysée, wishing “a positive message” cooperation “on condition that we negotiate together”. An unlisted member of the G7 as a supranational organization, the European Union has already angered Beijing recently, by offering to provide fewer exports of sensitive technologies to eight Chinese companies suspected of then re-shipping these products to Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has just toured Europe, will address the summit via video conference.
“I expect the key issues to be compliance with and enforcement of sanctions, particularly in the non-aligned countries of the South, and the potential lowering of the oil price ceiling [russe]which Ukraine demands”believes Maria Snegovaya, a specialist in Russia at the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) in Washington.
An unusually long list of non-G7 invitees has been drawn up. The leaders of India, Brazil and Indonesia are among the participants. While the war in Ukraine has restored the importance of the G7, Japan and other countries in this group believe that additional efforts are needed to attract non-aligned states that are reluctant to take sides. The G7 feels this need for openness all the more since the G20 is at an impasse, with China and Russia opposing any reference to the war in Ukraine.
Japan believes that China and, to a lesser extent, Russia are seeing their influence increase in the countries of the South thanks to economic aid and their “anti-Western messages”observes Chris Johnstone, another CSIS expert.
According to Japanese officials, the G7 in Hiroshima should also make a declaration on nuclear disarmament, a subject dear to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who chose to organize the summit in this city devastated by the first atomic bomb of the history in 1945, while being its own electoral stronghold.
#agricultural #land #unusable #years #ICRC