The G7 foreign ministers will meet this Tuesday and Wednesday in Tokyo to try to send a common message on the conflict between Israel and Palestine and reaffirm the continuity of aid to Ukraine.
The meeting between the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven most industrialized countries in the world (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom) and the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, is expected to address the most recent developments in the conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas.
The main objective of the current Japanese presidency of the G7 is that a “unified message that will help calm the situation in the Middle East” emerges from this meeting, said the spokesman for the Japanese executive, Hirokazu Matsuno, in a press conference held last Monday. , fair in Tokyo.
Japan is in favor of applying a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip and facilitate hostage rescue operations, a position that Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa conveyed to the Israeli government during a visit to Tel Aviv last weekend.
The Japanese position is similar to that of the United States, whose Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, also defended, in his recent visit to Israel, a humanitarian pause in the Israeli offensives, although he failed to convince the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Like the United States, Japan, a country that maintains traditionally friendly relations with both Israel and the Arab countries of the Middle East (it is highly dependent on their oil imports), also did not support calls for a ceasefire in the conflict.
However, Tokyo recently raised the tone of its protests against the growing number of civilian casualties in the Israeli army’s bombing of Gaza, in addition to reaffirming its support for the “two-state solution” to end the conflict.
The G7 meeting in Tokyo is expected to lead to a joint declaration that can help calm the situation and, at the same time, adjust the different sensitivities between the countries of the group, said diplomatic sources cited by the Spanish agency Efe.
The war in Ukraine will be another of the main points on the agenda of the G7 Foreign Ministers, who will call to “not forget” the conflict, which has taken a backseat due to the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.
The G7 countries already committed to providing assistance to Ukraine “for as long as necessary” and “by all possible means”, during the leaders’ summit held last May in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Now they want to revalidate the message in the face of the stagnation of the conflict and the internal debates that are taking place in some countries about the continuity of aid to kyiv.
Additionally, the foreign ministers will discuss growing instability in the Asia-Pacific region due to China’s military rise, tensions over Taiwan and North Korea’s weapons development, as well as strengthening ties with Moscow and Iran.
The joint statement should reaffirm the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as respecting international law in the East and South China Seas, where several incidents have occurred between Chinese ships and ships from other Asian countries. .
The Japanese presidency also plans to invite the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to a session of the meeting, via videoconference, according to the local press, explaining that the intention is to try to contain the growing Beijing’s influence in Asia. Central.
In what will be the second face-to-face meeting of the G7 this year under the Japanese presidency, the foreign ministers will hold a working dinner in Tokyo today and, on Wednesday, several debate sessions.
Source: TSF
