HIROSHIMA: Leaders of the Group of Seven major powers on Saturday vowed to take concrete steps to strengthen disarmament and nonproliferation efforts toward “the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.”

The G-7 members of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as the European Union, released the Hiroshima Leaders’ Communique on the second day of their three-day summit.

Realizing a world free from nuclear weapons is a lifework of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who chairs the summit, being held in the city of Hiroshima, western Japan, through Sunday.

In the communique, the G-7 leaders reaffirmed their “unwavering support for Ukraine for as long as it takes” and underlined their commitment to “continuing to counter the negative impacts” of Russia’s invasion on the rest of the world, particularly on the most vulnerable people.

The G-7 stressed the importance of building “constructive and stable relations” with China, calling on the country to “press Russia to stop its military aggression, and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.”

“Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development,” the communique said, adding: “We are not decoupling or turning inwards. At the same time, we recognize that economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying.”

Meanwhile, the G-7 leaders reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as “indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community.”

The communique stated that the leaders remain “seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas” and “strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.”

On the economic front, the leaders said they “stand ready to take appropriate actions to maintain financial stability and the resilience of the global financial system,” while reaffirming that their financial system is resilient despite the banking crisis in the United States and Europe.

Also, the G-7 recognized the need to “immediately take stock of the opportunities and challenges of” generative artificial intelligence technologies.

JIJI Press