
HIROSHIMA: The Group of Seven major democracies Sunday concluded their three-day summit in Hiroshima, with Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio touting the “historic significance” of the G-7’s show of commitment to a world without nuclear weapons.
“I feel it is historically significant that the G-7 leaders issued such a statement after visiting the atomic-bombed city, listening to the voice of a hibakusha survivor, directly experiencing the reality of the atomic bombing and people’s wishes for peace,” Kishida told a news conference as chair of the just-ended summit in the western Japan city.
On nuclear disarmament, the G-7 leaders released the Hiroshima Vision statement, reaffirming their commitment to achieving a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all and denouncing Russia’s nuclear threats in its invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined in person a G-7 session on the Ukrainian situation and a subsequent outreach session, which also included leaders of eight non-member guest nations such as India, Indonesia and Brazil, on ways to tackle challenges against global peace and stability.
The two sessions together lasted for about two and a half hours.
In the latter session, leaders expressed their deep concerns over human damage, energy and food instability and other problems brought about by the Russian aggression.
Kishida said that it is necessary to make realistic efforts to realize a world without nuclear weapons while acknowledging the world’s severe security situation, in order to ensure global peace.
After the G-7 sessions, Zelenskyy visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Kishida’s political hometown and one of the two Japanese cities devastated by US atomic bombings near the end of World War II in August 1945.
In their joint communique, released Saturday, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union reaffirmed their “unwavering support for Ukraine for as long as it takes” while calling on China to “press Russia to stop its military aggression, and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.”
JIJI Press