Sanctions against Russia and the power of China monopolize the G7 summit

The leaders of the G7 countries have been meeting since Friday in Japan to discuss the current global political situation. The war in Ukraine and China’s use of its economic power to advance your political program and increase your sphere of influence they will occupy a large part of the agenda of the summit being held in Hiroshima to send a message about the risks of nuclear proliferation.

Sources in the Biden administration told Reuters last week that one of the goals of the summit would be to coordinate the sanctions regime imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The goal is to avoid avoiding the said sanctions by Moscow, a challenge for the international coalition since Russian aggression provoked such a response. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to participate via telematics at the G7 summit.

As for China, the US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emmanuel, promised on Monday that, before “economic coercion” from Beijing, G7 members were developing tools to counter the power of the Asian giant. According to Emanuel, “more than words and statements” could be expected from the summit.

At the same time, Beijing decided to organize a parallel meeting between Xi Jinping and the leaders of Central Asia. The presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, countries that are considered Russia’s backyard, will thus be exceptional witnesses to the efforts of one China in the middle of the campaign reinvention as a pole of global power.

On Thursday, before the start of the summit, Joe Biden met with the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, and emphasized the closeness of the two countries at a time when tensions between the two and China continue to grow. The American president recalled Kishida’s comment from January last year, when he described the current moment as “the most complex in recent history.” Biden emphasized that he agreed with Kishida and that when Japan and the USA are “united, they are stronger”.

Tokyo’s decision to host the summit in Hiroshima it was no accident. Prime Minister Kishida wanted to send a message about dangers of nuclear escalation in his hometown. The Japanese leader has stated several times that one of his political goals is to move towards a “world without nuclear weapons.”

problems at home

Negotiations on the United States’ debt ceiling will also fly past the summit. Biden had to cancel visits to Australia and Papua New Guinea planned after the summit, and will return to Washington from Japan to continue negotiations.

The debt crisis, which according to the Ministry of Finance could accelerate a an unprecedented failure to pay the first economic force to the world in less than two weeks, has not yet been resolved.