The G7 Summit opens in Hiroshima, Japan on May 19, 2023. (photo: NHK)

The G7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US, who account for 47% of global GDP. The annual G7 Summit is an important event for the world’s developed countries to seek consensus and share viewpoints on regional and global issues. 

Commitment to a world free from nuclear weapons

One of the main topics of the G7 Summit is nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. This topic has special significance for Japan. Although Japan has not signed the UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the world’s nuclear powers are not members of the Treaty, Japan has always affirmed its stance on a nuclear-free world. It wants to make visible and steady progress toward nuclear disarmament while enhancing its deterrence capability to respond to threats.

Since suffering from a nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan has pushed the international community toward nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Not only at the G7 Summit but also at many other international forums held in Japan, the Japanese government has always invited the leaders, especially the US, to pay floral tribute in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to signal that nuclear weapons will not cause another disaster. Former US President Barack Obama was the first US President to offer a floral tribute at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial when he attended the G7 Summit in Japan in 2016. This year the G7 leaders laid wreaths of white flowers at the memorial for the victims of the first nuclear bombing.

Japan hopes that the G7 members will seriously try to reach a consensus on a non-nuclear-weapon policy.

A document on the importance of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament is expected to be released. The actions should include efforts to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and urge nuclear powers to be more transparent about their nuclear capabilities.

The G7 leaders sign the memorial book at the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan on May 19, 2023. (photo: Reuters)

G7 summit discusses measures for other global challenges

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is another major topic at the G7 Summit. Japan has carefully prepared for this topic for several months and an outline was approved at the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in mid-April in Nagano, Japan.

Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict began the US, Japan, and their allies have imposed some 11,000 sanctions on Russian finance, commerce, technology, energy, and its elites. Japan hopes the G7 and its partners can find ways to ease the conflict.

Other topics are denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, climate change, biodiversity, global health security, and gender equality. The G7 Summit is scheduled to issue a Joint Statement covering all these topics.

The leaders of Australia, Brazil, the Comoros, the Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, and a number of international organizations were invited to the G7 Expanded Summit, a move by Japan to reach out to partners and developing countries. The G7 Expanded Summit will discuss crises in food, health, development, and gender equality, and joint efforts toward a sustainable climate, environment, and energy, and a world of peace, stability, and prosperity.