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Tag: g7 summits

  • Zelensky makes dramatic Japan appearance as G7 leaders take aim at Russia and China | CNN Politics

    Zelensky makes dramatic Japan appearance as G7 leaders take aim at Russia and China | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky joined leaders of major democracies on Saturday at a summit in Japan dominated by a push to present a unified front against both Russia and China.

    The Group of Seven (G7) talks in Hiroshima are seeking common ground on a host of global issues, including how to confront Beijing’s growing military and economic assertiveness as well as the war raging in Europe.

    Zelensky, dressed in his trademark military themed clothing, made a headline-grabbing entrance as he touched down on board a French government plane in a Japanese city once obliterated by a nuclear bomb.

    “Japan. G7. Important meetings with partners and friends of Ukraine. Security and enhanced cooperation for our victory. Peace will become closer today,” he tweeted moments after arriving before heading to a dizzying round of bilateral meetings with leaders at the summit.

    His attendance underscores the pressing need to maintain Western unity in the face of Russian aggression.

    With Russia’s aerial assaults pounding Ukrainian cities and Kyiv preparing for a counter offensive, there is a growing urgency to Zelensky’s appeals for more advanced weapons and tighter sanctions on Moscow.

    A joint communique issued by G7 nations on Saturday focused heavily on Russia’s war against Ukraine, which the block “condemned in the strongest possible terms”.

    “We reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine for as long as it takes to bring a comprehensive, just and lasting peace,” the communique read.

    A day earlier G7 nations announced a string of further sanctions against Moscow while US President Joe Biden told his counterparts he was dropping objections to providing Ukrainians F16 fighter jets and would train Ukrainian pilots in the United States, a major advance in US military support for the country.

    Biden is expected to unveil a $375 million military aid package to Ukraine after the summit hears from Zelensky, officials familiar with the matter said, but leaders are confronting a wide-ranging set of issues beyond the war-torn country during their talks, including climate change and emerging artificial intelligence technologies.

    But Russia is not the only focus of the three day gathering, which Zelensky is set to address on Sunday.

    China also features heavily.

    Differences persist between the United States and Europe in how to manage their increasingly fraught relationships with the world’s second largest economy.

    But in Saturday’s joint communique, leaders spoke in one voice on a series of positions related to China, including the need to counter “economic coercion” and protect advanced technologies that could threaten national security, while also stressing that cooperation with Beijing was necessary.

    “A growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest. We are not decoupling or turning inwards,” the communique read.

    Leaders called on Beijing not to “conduct interference activities” that could undermine the “integrity of our democratic institutions and our economic prosperity” – an apparent nod to recent allegations that Beijing’s interfered in Canadian elections and operates of a network of overseas police stations across the globe.

    A separate joint statement on economic security made no specific mention of China – while explicitly referencing Russia – but its intended audience was unmistakably Beijing’s leadership.

    The leaders called for enhancing supply chain resilience, hitting back against “harmful industrial subsidies,” and protecting sensitive technologies crucial to national security – all areas that leaders have expressed concerns about in recent years in relation to China’s economic practices.

    Western leaders and officials were more direct in framing the measures as a response to threats from China in comments made around the statement.

    Ahead of its release on Saturday, the United Kingdom released a statement on G7 measures against economic coercion, which pointed to China’s use of its “economic power to coerce countries including Australia and Lithuania over political disputes.”

    China is “engaged in a concerted and strategic economic contest,” and nations “should be clear-eyed” about the growing challenge we face,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in the statement released by Downing Street, which also referenced Russia’s “weaponization” of Europe’s energy supplies.

    European Commission President Ursual von der Leyen welcomed the G7 action in a statement Saturday that nations must be “aware of the risk of weaponization of interdependencies,” but “urged de-risking not decoupling” – a term she has used to refer to how the EU should approach its economic relationship with China.

    China has already pushed back on ahead of G7 discussions, with its Foreign Ministry on Thursday posting a more than 5,000 word document on its website that reached back as far as 1960s Cuba to point to what it described as examples of “America’s Coercive Diplomacy and Its Harm.”

    “The US often accuses other countries of using great power status, coercive policies and economic coercion to pressure other countries into submission and engage in coercive diplomacy,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a regular press briefing in Beijing Friday.

    “The fact is, the US is the very origin of coercive diplomacy. It is the US and the US alone who owns the copyrights of coercive diplomacy,” he said, adding that China has “no taste for coercion and bullying.”

    Climate change was also a major theme of this weekend’s gathering with the joint communique including a pledge that the G7 would drive the economic transition to clean energy.

    “We commit to realizing the transformation of the economic and social system towards net-zero, circular, climate-resilient, pollution-free and nature-positive economies,” the communique read.

    The leaders also signaled they would closely monitor the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), by advancing discussions on AI governance and interoperability in line with “shared democratic values.”

    Biden is balancing his world leader talks with updates from the standoff over the US debt ceiling in Washington – a “subject of interest” in the president’s summit meetings, according to Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

    “Countries want to have a sense of how these negotiations are going to play out. And the president has expressed confidence that he believes that we can drive to an outcome where we do avoid default, and part of the reason that he’s returning home tomorrow, rather than continuing with the rest of the trip, is so that he can help lead the effort to bring it home,” Sullivan said.

    Speaking to reporters as he met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan, Biden said he was not concerned “at all” about negotiations with House Republicans to avoid a default.

    “This goes in stages. I’ve been in these negotiations before,” Biden said.

    Biden, who departed a leaders’ dinner early on Friday to return to his hotel to receive additional information from staff, has gotten continual updates on the negotiations underway in Washington.

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  • Biden and G7 leaders prepare new Russia sanctions as Zelensky expected to attend Japan summit | CNN Politics

    Biden and G7 leaders prepare new Russia sanctions as Zelensky expected to attend Japan summit | CNN Politics

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    Hiroshima, Japan
    CNN
     — 

    US President Joe Biden and fellow world leaders were unveiling tough new sanctions on Russia as they prepare to hear in-person later this weekend from Volodomyr Zelensky, who officials said was planning a dramatic trip to Japan as he continues to appeal for military assistance amid Russia’s invasion.

    The new sanctions are designed to plug loopholes and go after untapped industries as western leaders continue to work toward choking off Moscow’s war financing.

    A dedicated G7 session on Ukraine was set for Friday afternoon. The war was expected to be a central topic of discussion among leaders here as Ukrainian forces prepare for a counteroffensive.

    The high point will come when Zelensky addresses the group in person. Officials declined to say exactly when Zelensky would arrive or detail his travel arrangements. He has been traveling outside his country more as the war grinds onward, including a tour of Europe last week.

    The lengthy trip from Ukraine to Hiroshima, where leaders from the world’s most powerful democracies are gathering, underscores Zelensky’s desire to strengthen support fourteen months into the war.

    The menacing nuclear undertones to Russia’s invasion were placed into sharp relief as the summit got underway. Leaders laid wreaths at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the epicenter of the American atomic bomb dropped here in 1945 that wiped out the city and more than 100,000 of its inhabitants while hastening the end of World War II.

    In the background was the Atomic Bomb Dome, now a monument and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The dome was formerly the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, and the atomic blast struck almost directly above it, leaving the frame of its iron dome largely intact.

    It was against that backdrop that Biden and his fellow leaders entered three days of talks.

    The US said Friday it would tighten export controls, including by “extensively restricting categories of goods key to the battlefield,” and will announce nearly 300 new sanctions against “individuals, entities, vessels, and aircraft.”

    Additionally, the US will place new designations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and expand its sanctions authorities to further target Russia’s economy.

    The United Kingdom said it will ban the import of Russian diamonds, as part of its latest sanctions against Moscow, Downing Street announced on Friday. The move aims to restrict one of Russia’s few remaining export industries that had been relatively untouched by the withering western sanctions already in place.

    Imports of Russian-origin copper, aluminum, and nickel will also be banned under the UK legislation, which will be introduced later this year, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

    The Russian diamond industry was worth $4 billion in exports in 2021, according to Downing Street.

    Biden faces his fellow world leaders Friday in Japan under the shadow of a looming default on US debt, a scenario his advisers said risks subverting American leadership and sending the global economy into tailspin.

    The risk appears particularly acute as Biden works to rally fellow G7 officials behind a shared approach toward Russia and China. On the first day of the summit talks, the group is expected to unveil a new tightening of sanctions on Moscow – a response to the invasion of Ukraine that relies on the strength of the American financial system.

    Before arriving, Biden was briefed on the debt ceiling standoff by aides.

    “The President’s team informed him that steady progress is being made,” a White House official said.

    The call lasted 20-30 minutes, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told pool reporters traveling with the President. A separate source with knowledge of the talks said — despite the optimism and positive signals — there is a long way to go to get a deal and it’s unclear if negotiators reach one by this weekend or if it will slip into next week.

    How much the debt standoff arises in Biden’s talks in Hiroshima remains to be seen; some European officials said they had been down similar roads before as American leaders worked to avert financial disaster only to find a solution at the last moment.

    But even if it does not arise substantially in the many hours of leaders’ meetings spanning the next three days, the risk of default remains the backdrop against which Biden will attempt to project strength this week in Japan.

    “Debt ceiling brinkmanship that Republicans are driving in Washington, DC, undermines American leadership, undermines the trustworthiness that America can bring to not just our allies and partners but to the rest of the world,” a senior administration official said as Biden began the high-stakes G7 summit.

    Biden cut his trip to Asia short to return to Washington early as negotiations continue over raising the US borrowing limit ahead of June 1, the earliest date by which the country could run out of cash to pay its bills.

    An extensive agenda of issues, including Ukraine, China and artificial intelligence, are all up for discussion. But it was clear from Biden’s decision to cancel planned stops in Australia and Papua New Guinea – Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make a two-day visit to the latter instead – that other matters are weighing on the US president’s time.

    To that end, Biden brought with him to Japan a top domestic policy aide, Bruce Reed, to keep him continually updated on the status of talks between White House aides and congressional Republicans.

    Just the threat of default has the potential to weaken American diplomatic authority, the official said, citing a sanctions regime on Russia that relies on the strength of the US financial system.

    “All of those things reduce America’s capacity to lead,” the official said.

    Biden’s meetings with fellow leaders in Hiroshima will present “an opportunity to highlight just how essential it is that that the Republicans work to get this done expeditiously with the president, because a lot is riding on ensuring that the United States continues to lead and lead alongside the G7.”

    Nowhere is that more evident than Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The conflict will be a key topic of discussion for world leaders Friday.

    “All G7 members are preparing to implement new sanctions and export controls,” the senior official said, framing the US package of sanctions as “substantial.”

    The official previewed a five-pronged plan of new steps G7 nations are taking more broadly to further economically isolate Russia, including efforts to disrupt Russia’s ability to source inputs for its war and to close loopholes that have allowed certain Russian entities to evade existing sanctions.

    The sanctions come 14 months after Russia launched its invasion and as Ukraine prepares for a counteroffensive using billions of dollars in Western military aid.

    Biden and fellow leaders were planning to discuss how much progress has been made on the battlefield, with an eye toward helping Ukraine regain territory and assume leverage in potential peace talks.

    While the US remains Ukraine’s largest contributor of military assistance, some leaders have begun calling for ever-more-advanced weapons, including fighter jets, to send Kyiv. Biden has resisted those calls as he works to prevent an escalation.

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Police raid home of Japanese prime minister attack suspect as Kishida vows G7 meeting will be secure | CNN

    Police raid home of Japanese prime minister attack suspect as Kishida vows G7 meeting will be secure | CNN

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    Tokyo/ Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Police have raided the home of a man suspected of throwing an explosive near Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, as the leader vowed to ensure maximum security to keep global dignitaries safe during G7 meetings in the country next month.

    Kishida had to abandon a speech on Saturday when a small explosive device was thrown in his direction while he was campaigning for the ruling party’s by-election candidate at the port city of Wakayama in western Japan.

    The attack came nine months since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot at a political rally by a man using a homemade gun in an assassination that rocked Japan and sparked criticism over whether enough security was in place.

    Investigators probing Saturday’s attack searched the home of the alleged suspect, 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura, in the city of Kawanishi in Hyogo Prefecture early on Sunday morning, police told CNN.

    Police confirmed two cylindrical pipes were found at the scene of the blast, including one that exploded and another that was unused. Some type of powder, tools, a computer, mobile phone and tablet were also confiscated from the suspect.

    They also removed more than 10 cardboard boxes believed to contain relevant materials in an operation that ended shortly after 9 a.m. local time, public broadcaster NHK reported.

    Dramatic video footage of the attack showed a silver cylinder thrown in the direction of Kishida rolling on the floor as a bodyguard then scrambled to kick the object away from the prime minister and used a protective board to shield him. There was a commotion in the crowd as a man tried to flee before being apprehended. Seconds later a loud blast set off smoke.

    The man was arrested at the scene on “suspicion of forcible obstruction of business” and taken to the Wakayama West Police Station for questioning. In Japan, “forcible obstruction of business” is a crime – “to obstruct another person’s business by force.” It is punishable by a jail term of up to three years and a fine of 500,000 yen (about $3,735).

    While Kishida was evacuated unharmed, the attack sent a wave of unnerving déjà vu over Abe’s assassination during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. Abe’s death horrified a nation that is rarely associated with political and gun violence.

    On Sunday, Kishida said he called to thank the local fisherman’s association in Wakayama, who helped secure the suspect before he was apprehended by police.

    The Prime Minister said Japan must do everything to ensure safety as foreign dignitaries gather for G7 meetings which take place in Hiroshima from May 19 to 21.

    “Japan as a whole must strive to provide maximum security during the dates of the summit (in Hiroshima next month) and other gatherings of dignitaries from around the world,” Kishida said on Sunday.

    His comments came as G7 foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, began three days of talks in the central Japanese town of Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture.

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  • Japan’s Kishida vows maximum security for G7, day after explosive thrown at him | CNN

    Japan’s Kishida vows maximum security for G7, day after explosive thrown at him | CNN

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    Hong Kong/Tokyo
    CNN
     — 

    Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed on Sunday to keep world leaders safe during G7 meetings in the country, a day after a man threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb at him during a campaign speech.

    “Japan as a whole must strive to provide maximum security during the dates of the summit (in Hiroshima next month) and other gatherings of dignitaries from around the world,” Kishida said Sunday, in comments that came as G7 foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, began three days of talks in the central Japanese town of Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture.

    On Saturday, Kishida had to abandon a speech he was giving in support of his ruling party’s candidate in a by-election in Wakayama when a small explosive device was thrown at him. While Kishida was evacuated unhurt, the attack has caused shockwaves in Japan, and drawn comparisons with the assassination last year of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot in July last year during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.

    Prior to Abe’s death the nation had rarely been associated with either political or gun violence.

    Campaigning is currently underway in Japan’s nationwide local elections and Kishida has already returned to campaigning in support of his Liberal Democratic Party.

    Speaking to reporters from his official residence in Tokyo, he vowed the attack would not disrupt the democratic process.

    “Violent acts taking place during elections, which are the basis of democracy, can never be tolerated,” Kishida said.

    “What is important is to carry through this election to the end. It is important for our country and for our democracy that the voice of the voters is clearly expressed through the election,” he said.

    Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Saturday that police would boost security when Kishida hosts the G7 summit in May, Reuters reported.

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  • US, EU, G7 and Australia announce new price cap on Russian petroleum products | CNN Politics

    US, EU, G7 and Australia announce new price cap on Russian petroleum products | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The US and allies are trying to further limit Russia’s ability to make money and finance its war efforts with new price limits on products like gasoline and fuel oil, a senior Treasury official announced Friday – adding to sanctions on Russian energy sales in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

    “Our intent is not to crash the Russian economy,” the official told reporters Friday. “Our intent is to make it impossible for the Kremlin to continue to make the choice of propping up the economy and also paying for their war.”

    The agreement between the US, the G7, the European Union and Australia places a price cap on “seaborne Russian-origin petroleum products,” the US Department of Treasury said. There are two price levels: one applies to “premium-to-crude” petroleum products like diesel, kerosene and gasoline, which will be capped at $100 USD per barrel, and “discount-to-crude” petroleum products like fuel oil, which will be capped at $45 USD per barrel.

    “The thing that we’re focused on is cutting off the revenue,” the official said. “We’re also going after their military industrialized complex and supply chain so they can’t use the money they have to buy the weapons they need. Our approach to this is really to go after the things that are crucial to the Kremlin’s war effort and their ability to prop up their economy.”

    In December, the same group implemented a price cap on crude oil – which the Treasury official said was already impeding Russia’s ability to finance the war. They added Russia had “openly acknowledged” the price cap was hurting the country’s economy. Data released by Russia showed that monthly tax revenues from energy sales declined 46% from the month prior.

    Officials shrugged off reports that, despite numerous sanctions, Russia’s economy is still expected to rebound and may even outpace Germany and Great Britain. The senior Treasury official said economically, the country “doesn’t function any longer like a normal economy.”

    “They’ve shut it down largely, meaning that if you have money of Russia, they’ll let you keep putting money in Russia, but you can’t take money out. They no longer allow foreign capital coming into Russia,” the official said. “They’re needing to spend more money to prop up their economy because they become a closed economy.”

    The reality, the official said, is that Russia’s budget deficit is growing “because the war is costing them more money” because the “bravery of the Ukrainian people” and the “weapons” were a surprise to them.

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