MUNICH: Japan will host the 2023 Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima on May 19-21, Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio said Tuesday.

Japan will hold the rotating presidency of the G-7 major powers next year. Kishida is a lawmaker elected from a constituency in the western Japan city, hit by a US atomic bomb in August 1945 near the end of World War II.

In the lead-up to the Hiroshima summit, “we’ll make sure to deepen discussions on realistic measures toward the achievement of a world without nuclear weapons,” Kishida told a news conference in the German city of Munich after attending a three-day G-7 summit in Schloss Elmau, also Germany.

“We want to show the world a powerful commitment never to repeat the horrors of nuclear weapons” at the Hiroshima summit, he stressed.

“The G-7, carrying the weight of history, will display its determination to lead the creation of order in the new era based on universal values and international rules,” Kishida declared.

On domestic issues, Kishida said the government will help lower electricity bills by building a framework effective in easing tight electricity supplies and curbing electricity prices.

He also announced plans to pay aid money to cover 70 pct of the increase in fertilizer costs and expand special grants for regional revitalization that local governments can use at their discretion.

Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to attend a NATO summit when he joins the one to be held in the Spanish capital of Madrid for two days from Wednesday.

“The security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific region is inseparable,” Kishida said. “I hope to make (my participation) an opportunity to confirm the view that changing the status quo by force is unacceptable anywhere and strengthen our cooperation with NATO.”

JIJI Press