G7 support for Ukraine will not dim due to Middle East conflict, Japan
says
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[November 07, 2023]
By Sakura Murakami and John Geddie
TOKYO (Reuters) - G7 support for Ukraine in its war with Russia will not
be affected by the intensifying Middle East conflict, Japan said on
Tuesday as the group's foreign ministers prepared to hold virtual talks
with Kyiv during a meeting in Tokyo.
The Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations - Britain, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - as well as the European
Union, meet in Tokyo on Nov. 7-8 to discuss issues including Russia's
war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza 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.
At a meeting with Kamikawa later on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken emphasised the group's "enduring support" for Ukraine as
a key item on the agenda for the talks, but also said it was an
important moment to come together on the Israel-Hamas war.
The G7 is due to hold an online meeting with Ukraine's Foreign Minister
Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday.
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 U.S. 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 Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy 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 on Tuesday that it would take an unavoidable hit from
U.S. sanctions on the Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia, in which Japan
companies Mitsui & Co and JOGMEC hold a combined 10% stake.
ISRAEL-GAZA RESPONSE
Finding its voice on Ukraine appears to have proved easier for the G7
than tackling the spiralling Israel-Gaza crisis which has claimed
thousands of lives and threatens to spill into a regional conflict.
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Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken shake hands at the prime minister's official
residence Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Tokyo, Japan. Eugene Hoshiko/Pool
via REUTERS
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 militants on
southern Israel on Oct 7 that killed 1,400 people, Kamikawa said.
Health officials in Gaza say more than 10,000 Palestinians, mostly
women and children, have been killed so far by the Israeli bombing.
Also on Tuesday, Kamikawa, Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara,
and their British counterparts attended a 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 those 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.
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 United States, officials and analysts say.
But at the meeting with Blinken, Kamikawa said there was "solid
unity" between the countries on the issue.
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 U.S. opposing it and the
group's other members abstaining.
G7 foreign ministers are preparing "some sort of statement" to be
issued following the Tokyo talks, Kamikawa said declining to comment
on its contents.
(Reporting by Sakura Murakami, Tim Kelly and John Geddie; Editing by
Tom Hogue and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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