From May 19-21, 2023, the Group of Seven (G7) held its annual summit in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, to discuss the war in Ukraine, ways to counteract the presence of China in the Indo-Pacific region and to create a world free from nuclear weapons.
Apart from the heads of state of the seven members (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States), other invitees included the heads of the European Union, Australia, Brazil, Comoros (as current chair of the African Union), the Cook Islands (as current chair of the Pacific Islands Forum), India (current president of the G20), Indonesia (current chair of ASEAN), South Korea and Vietnam.
Ukraine and China in the limelight
A joint communique was issued by the G7 leaders on the second day of the summit, which included a vow to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” to drive the transition to clean energy economies and to achieve increased economic resilience and security by reducing their reliance on goods from China. The summit also saw the announcement of the Hiroshima Action Statement for Resilient Global Food Security that reaffirmed that access to affordable and nutritious food is a basic human need. The communique also reiterated last year’s G7 plan to “mobilize” $600 billion in financing for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII).
Throughout the three-day summit, the majority of the focus was on China with British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, declaring the country to be the “greatest challenge of our age” to global prosperity, and all the G7 leaders reiterated their support for Taiwan, which is internationally recognized as Chinese territory. The G7 leaders also vowed to reduce their reliance on China in their supply chains while criticizing Beijing for “weaponizing economic vulnerabilities.”
In response to Rishi Sunak’s criticism, the Chinese Embassy in Britain described the remarks as “malicious slanders” and asked the government to stop slandering China. China’s Foreign Ministry also accused the G7 leaders of “hindering international peace” and urged them to reflect on their behavior and change course.
Ukrainian President’s surprise visit
The unannounced arrival of Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, on the final day of the summit via a French government military aircraft overshadowed the other issues.
Addressing the participants at the summit, Zelensky thanked them for their support which made it possible to save “thousands and thousands of lives of Ukrainians from Russian missiles”. He noted that “there can be no dialogue with Russia until it leaves the territory of Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders in accordance with the UN Charter”.
Later, President Biden announced a new package of arms shipments to Ukraine and stated, “We have Ukraine’s back, and we’re not going anywhere”.
The Group of Seven, commonly known as the G7, traces its roots back to the 1970s when finance ministers and the governors of the central banks of Japan, France, West Germany, Britain, and the United States began holding regular meetings on economic issues. By 1976, Canada and Italy had joined the group, and the forum became known as the G7. Although it has no formal contract or charter, the G7 has evolved into a forum to discuss broader matters beyond economic cooperation such as security, development, and climate change. From 1997 to 2014, the forum was known as the G8 when Russia was a member but returned to being known as the G7 after Russia was expelled following the annexation of Crimea, which member nations continue to assert is Ukrainian territory.
