2023-05-19 11:07:11
At the beginning of Friday’s G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, the US, the EU and Great Britain announced new sanctions against Russia, including against the Russian diamond trade. The most important democratic industrialized countries also demanded a complete withdrawal of Russia from Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also expected to attend the meeting.
G7 leaders insist on Russia’s “complete and unconditional withdrawal” from Ukraine. In the summit declaration published on Friday, the heads of state and government emphasized that they will continue to support Ukraine financially in the coming year. “A just peace is not possible without the complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops and military equipment. This must be included in every call for peace,” it said. In doing so, the G7 also make a preliminary determination for the various peace initiatives that are currently being put forward by Brazil, the Arab League and China. Western governments have repeatedly stressed that they want Ukraine to decide when to enter peace talks with Russia.
Even before the heads of state and government sat down at the table on Friday, the US and Great Britain announced new punitive measures against Russia and its supporters. The G7 countries want to further restrict Moscow’s commodity trade, which is worth billions. Britain also announced an import ban on copper, aluminum and nickel from Russia. The USA also announced that it would put together a new package of sanctions.
At the G7 summit, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for further expansion of military support for Ukraine. “We must now give Ukraine the tools it needs to successfully defend itself and regain full sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said. It is important to give Ukraine the necessary military and financial support for as long as necessary. Peace negotiations that put the aggressor and the victim on an equal footing should be rejected.
Regarding the previous sanctions against Russia, von der Leyen said that the EU export bans alone affect goods with a pre-war trade volume of around 50 billion euros per year. This corresponds to a share of 55 percent. The EU import bans on goods from Russia therefore affect 60 percent of pre-war exports with a value of around 90 billion euros.
By Sunday, all G7 countries want to introduce measures to limit the export of rough diamonds from Russia – the world’s largest producer. A corresponding summit declaration is to be decided. “We will restrict trade in Russian diamonds,” said EU Council President Charles Michel on the sidelines of the G7 summit. The Russian state diamond miner Alrosa achieved 332 billion rubles (around 4 billion euros) in 2021 – the last year in which it disclosed figures.
The heads of state and government will also discuss further military aid for Ukraine. According to EU Council President Michel, the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine is an issue. US news channel CNN reported that US President Joe Biden’s administration had signaled to European allies in recent weeks that the US would allow them to deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Non-governmental organizations called on the rich industrialized countries not to forget other humanitarian crises in the world while helping in the Ukraine war. The support for Ukraine is expressly welcomed, said Yuko Shibata from the emergency aid organization Japan Platform (JPF) on Friday at the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima in Japan. “But Ukraine is not the only crisis in the world.”
The organizations involved in the Civil 7 process of the respective G7 presidencies are concerned “that funds will be diverted to Ukraine,” said Shibata. “We must not forget the ‘forgotten crises’.” The organizations complained that food insecurity had reached enormous proportions.
At the beginning of the meeting, the participants commemorated the US atomic bombing of August 6, 1945, which practically leveled the Japanese city to the ground during World War II. US President Biden also laid a wreath. Like former US President Barack Obama, who visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in 2016, he did not want to apologize for his country’s atomic bombing at the G7 summit.
Von der Leyen also called on the G7 countries to agree on a secure supply of raw materials. “I hope that we can launch a critical raw materials club at this G7 meeting,” she said. She also hopes that the EU-US green steel talks will lead to a global agreement. There must be a dialogue about incentives for clean energy.
She expressly warned against a subsidy competition. Therefore, there must be transparency among the G7 countries as to how the industry is supported. The background to this is a debate between the EU and the USA about US subsidies for climate-friendly technologies – which can ultimately also affect third countries such as Japan. Von der Leyen said a transatlantic deal on critical minerals is still being negotiated.
Dealing with China and the dependencies in some areas will also play a role in the consultations on the global economy. Michel stressed that decoupling the economy from China is not in the interest of the EU. It is necessary to maintain “stable and constructive” cooperation with China.
The G7 final statement is expected to include a passage on China detailing issues such as “economic coercion and other behaviors,” according to a US official. It is about the dependency on raw materials and the question of whether the export of high-tech products to China should be restricted. However, the fact that the United States does not want isolation is shown by the fact that it was announced on Friday that trade representatives from both countries plan to meet in Washington next week.
China, meanwhile, dismissed the G7 countries’ considerations of reducing their dependence on the second-largest economy because of growing risks as unfounded. Commenting on the G7 discussions, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in Beijing on Friday: “The world cannot decouple and does not need risk reduction with China as its target.”
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