G7 summit gets underway in Hiroshima, as support for Ukraine is main topic

Leaders of the G7 meet in the southern Japanese city of Hiroshima for their annual summit from May 19 – 21, Report informs via Aljazeera.

They are expected to discuss not only economics, but politics, and Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. China, which has become increasingly assertive in its claims in the disputed South China Sea and over self-ruled Taiwan, is also likely to be an issue along with North Korea’s weapons testing.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kisida, US President Joseph Biden, Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the summit.

This year, the leaders of Australia, Brazil, Comoros (chair of the African Union), Cook Islands (chair of the Pacific Islands Forum), India (G20 president), Indonesia (chair of Association of Southeast Asian Nations), South Korea and Vietnam are invited, reflecting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s stress on the importance of reaching out to developing countries, as well as US allies and partners.

Leaders of the United Nations, the International Energy Agency, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization are also on the guest list.