Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi announced today that he will travel to Germany next Friday to attend the Munich Security Conference (MSC), and indicated that he would take advantage of its presence in this forum to organize a meeting of G7 foreign ministers.
Hayashi will take part in this conference at which around fifty Heads of State or Government are expected, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, and where the Russian invasion of Ukraine should be one of the themes central.
Japan’s foreign minister will speak at a panel on the Indo-Pacific, where he will explain Japan’s new national security strategy approved by the country late last year, according to what he said today at a press conference.
In addition to its participation in this forum, Japan “is coordinating to hold the first meeting of G7 foreign ministers under the Japanese presidency”, said Hayashi, who did not give further details on this appointment.
Local media pointed out that the Japanese government’s idea is to hold the meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Germany around the 18th, taking advantage of the presence of other ministers from this group of countries at the conference which took place held in the German city of Munich between the 17th and 19th.
Japan, which assumed the rotating G7 presidency this year, aims to “highlight the importance of a rules-based international order” at G7 meetings, Hayashi said.
The Japanese government is also planning to convene a videoconference summit of the Group of Seven leaders on February 24, the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Japanese media reports earlier this month, although this information has not yet been officially confirmed.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to invite Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, as well as the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States to the telematic meeting.
Japan will host the face-to-face summit of G7 leaders in the city of Hiroshima at the end of May, a meeting in which the hosts hope to send a message of unity against Russian aggression against the neighboring country and in favor of denuclearization.
The telematic meeting of the 24th would serve in the same sense to reaffirm the support of the Group of Seven in kyiv and its condemnation of Moscow, as well as to seek additional means of financial assistance to Ukraine.