The most important topics during the three days of the summit are the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and how to deal with the economic and military superpower China.
That the Japanese hosts chose Hiroshima as the venue is a powerful symbol of a wartime summit. On August 6, 1945, a US atomic bomb destroyed 80 percent of the city. More than 70,000 people died immediately, and by the end of 1945 the number of fatalities had already reached 140,000. Tens of thousands more died as a result of the long-term effects of radioactive contamination. Against this background, a summit declaration on nuclear disarmament is planned.
G7 deliberations on Russia: USA hold out the prospect of new sanctions
Before the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, the US government promised new sanctions in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, announced on the flight to Japan that the US would present a sanctions package in conjunction with a summit declaration by the G7 countries. The statement will focus primarily on the enforcement of existing sanctions. He did not initially give any details.
The communications director of the National Security Council, John Kirby, said a few days ago that the United States was planning further punitive measures against those involved in the increasing arms deals between Russia and Iran. According to US information, Iran is one of Moscow’s most important military supporters and supplies Russia with attack drones on a larger scale.
Russia’s war against Ukraine is one of the main topics of the meeting of the seven leading democratic industrial nations. In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the West had imposed unprecedented punitive measures against Russia, including far-reaching trade restrictions.
The focus of the discussions in Hiroshima is now the “enforcement of the sanctions to ensure that we switch off bypass networks and close loopholes (…) so that the effects are amplified and amplified in the coming months,” Sullivan said.
In view of previous discussions about a possible almost complete export ban to Russia, Sullivan said he did not expect such an export ban. The main focus at the G7 summit is on implementing existing sanctions and preventing punitive measures from being circumvented.
HIROSHIMA (dpa-AFX)
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