The G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US – as well as the European Union, will meet in Tokyo today and tomorrow to discuss issues including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas crisis.
“Our commitment to continue strict sanctions against Russia and strong support for Ukraine has not wavered at all, even as the situation in the Middle East intensifies,” Japan’s foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa told a press conference.
She said the G7 was arranging virtual talks with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to be held during the Tokyo meeting.
G7 countries recognise that Russia is settling into its war in Ukraine for the longer term and this requires enduring military and economic support for Kyiv, a senior US official said after the bloc’s foreign ministers met in September.
The group has been at the forefront of sanctions on Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky making a surprise appearance at the G7 leaders summit in Hiroshima in May.
In the latest move aimed at turning the economic screws on Russia, the group is weighing up proposals to impose sanctions on Russian diamonds.
Japan also said today that it would take an unavoidable hit from US sanctions on the Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia, in which Japanese companies Mitsui & Co and JOGMEC hold a combined 10% stake.
Israel-Hamas conflict response
Finding its voice on Ukraine appears to have proved easier for the G7 than tackling the spiralling Israel-Hamas crisis which has claimed thousands of civilian lives and threatens to spill into a regional conflict.
Since the war erupted, the G7 has issued just one joint statement on the conflict, amounting to a few sentences. Other group members have issued separate statements.
In Tokyo, the G7 plans to convey the need for a pause in fighting and allowing humanitarian access to Gaza, which has been bombarded by Israel in retaliation for an attack by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct 7 that killed 1,400 people, Kamikawa said.
Ahead of the G7 talks, Kamikawa, Japan’s defence minister Minoru Kihara, and their British counterparts attended a 2+2 foreign and defence ministers’ meeting, where they reiterated that the two-state solution was the only viable path to just and lasting peace in the region.
A joint statement following the talks also condemned what it described as destabilising activities in the region by Iran and called on the oil-rich nation to play a more constructive role to de-escalate tensions.
Health officials in Gaza say more than 10,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far by the Israeli bombing.
G7 chair Japan has taken a cautious approach to the crisis, resisting pressure to fall in line with the pro-Israel stance of its closest ally, the US, officials and analysts say.
G7 divisions have also been evident at the United Nations, with France voting in favour of a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in the conflict on Oct 26, the US opposing it, and the group’s other members abstaining.
Agreeing specific wording on Israel’s right to defend itself and concerns about the civilian casualties in Gaza could be among the trickier negotiations, officials and analysts say.
“Although we will refrain from making a legal assessment of the actions of the Israeli military, generally speaking, the basic norms of international humanitarian law must be observed,” Kamikawa said.
G7 foreign ministers are preparing “some sort of statement” to be issued following the Tokyo talks, Kamikawa said declining to comment on its contents.