The heads of the G7 diplomacy on Tuesday sternly warned the countries which would provide assistance to Russia in Ukraine, also presenting a united front against China, of which they condemned the maritime “activities of militarization”.
Meeting since Sunday in Karuizawa in the Japanese Alps, the foreign ministers of the main industrialized countries have promised to make pay “the high price” to the countries which would provide assistance to Russia in its war against Ukraine.
They also pledged to continue to “intensify” sanctions against Russia and to redouble their efforts to prevent their circumvention by third countries.
The final statement of their meeting also considers “unacceptable” the “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric” of Russia and its threat to deploy weapons in Belarus.
“As Ukraine prepares to launch a counter-offensive to retake its territory (…), we support Ukraine,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters.
The G7 countries (France, Japan, United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom) also warned Beijing against its military ambitions in the South China Sea and underlined their unchanged position with regard to Taiwan, despite the turmoil linked to recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron.
During his visit to China in early April, the French president told the media that Europe should not be caught up in “crises that would not be (his)” in reference to Taiwan, which had irritated some allies of France before the Karuizawa meeting.
“There is no change in the basic positions of the members of the G7 on Taiwan”, thus assure the chief diplomats of the group in their press release, considering “indispensable” the maintenance of peace and stability in the Strait of Taiwan.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and her counterparts have tried throughout the two days of talks in Japan to play down their differences, and their joint statement adopts strong language towards Beijing.
Their text thus evokes the “concerns” of the G7 concerning “the continuous and accelerated expansion of China’s nuclear arsenal”, calling on it to work for “stability through greater transparency” on its nuclear weapons.
Mr. Blinken assured that he had never seen such a “great convergence” of views on China and Taiwan by the G7.
Without citing Beijing, the joint statement pledges to strengthen cooperation against “economic coercion”, consisting of restricting foreign trade or investment for political purposes.
The warning against supporting Russia in Ukraine, without mentioning China, however, itself echoes repeated warnings by Western officials in Beijing against supplying arms to Russia.
While the discussions were clearly dominated by the war between Russia and Ukraine and China’s ambitions in the Asia-Pacific, the G7 ministers also touched on many other global political issues and crises.
They thus enjoined North Korea to “refrain” from new nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches.
They also “strongly condemned” the fighting that has been raging since Saturday in Sudan and called for their “immediate end”, while these clashes between the regular army and a powerful paramilitary force have already killed nearly 200 people according to the Nations. united.
The ministers also demanded the “immediate” lifting of the “unacceptable” ban on Afghan women working for NGOs and the UN, enacted this month by the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
“Foreign countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan”, whose principles and laws are the business of the Afghans, reacted curtly to AFP the spokesman for the government of the country, Zabihullah Mujahid.
While the G7 Heads of State are due to meet in May in Hiroshima, whose history is deeply marked by the atomic bomb dropped by the United States in 1945, the text of the diplomats gives a large place to the commitment of the group to “strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation efforts” for “a safer and more stable world”.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, himself elected from Hiroshima to Parliament, has already expressed his wish to debate there with his counterparts the possibility of “a world without nuclear weapons”. However, Tuesday’s statement contains little new information on the matter, citing “the current difficult security environment”.
The G7 communiqué calls on the entire international community for “transparency” on nuclear weapons, urging Russia to respect the moratorium on nuclear tests to which it has subscribed.
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18/04/2023 10:23:22 Karuizawa (Japanese) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
