The G7 foreign ministers today began their three-day meeting in the Japanese city of Karuizawa with Russia and China in focus, and among reinforced security measures after the supposed failed attack against the Japanese prime minister the day before.
Before beginning the discussion sessions scheduled to be held between Monday and Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Japan, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States held a Work dinner after arriving in this idyllic Japanese town, located between the mountains of Nagano, in the center of the country, and known as a vacation destination.
The usual calm in Karuizawa was disturbed by a large police force around the railway station where the ministers arrived from Tokyo, as well as on the main streets of the city and around the hotel where the meetings are held.
The Japanese Prime Minister himself Fumio Kishidacalled today to reinforce the security measures throughout the country for the campaign of the local elections and the national Parliament that are held next Sunday, but also in view of the meeting that begins in Karuizawa and before other upcoming G7 appointments in Japan.
Kishida was the subject of an apparent failed attack on the eve, when the president was evacuated from a rally in Wakayama (west) moments after a person in the public threw a device at him and it exploded without causing any significant damage.
The Japanese authorities immediately arrested the alleged perpetrator of the attack and are investigating his motives and the type of devices used in the incident.
Message of unity before Russia and China
It is expected that a joint statement will come out of the meeting that includes a new condemnation of Russia for its aggression against Ukraineand to express the shared concern about China’s military activities in the Indo-Pacific.
The document, still in the negotiation phase, will also urge North Korea to end its ongoing ballistic missile testing and atomic weapons program, and will call for global denuclearization, according to Japanese diplomatic sources.
The specific language that will be used to single out China for its role in the Ukraine conflict and for the tensions around Taiwan remains to be seen.
While the positions of Japan and the United States are very close on this point, the unity of European politics was called into question after recent statements by the French president, Emmanuel Macronin which he defended that the EU must follow its own “pace” regarding the relationship with China and the Taiwan question instead of “accommodating the agenda” of the United States.
In this context, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, wanted to emphasize today the common position of the EU before Beijingwhich is seen as “a partner” and at the same time “a systemic rival”.
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“The EU’s position towards China has not changed, and it can only be defined at the European level,” Borrell said in telematic statements to the media on the occasion of the G7 Foreign Affairs meeting, and which he was unable to attend as planned. for having given covid positive last Wednesday.
Replacing Borrell, the head of his cabinet and deputy secretary general of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the also Spanish, attended the meeting in Karuizawa Enrique Mora.