HIROSHIMA: G7 leaders arrived in Hiroshima, Japan, on Thursday to weigh tighter sanctions on Russia and protections against China’s “economic coercion”, surrounded by reminders about the harrowing cost of war.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is hosting leaders from six other wealthy democracies in his hometown — a city synonymous with nuclear destruction and now peppered with peace monuments.

Leaders including US President Joe Biden will try over three days to forge a united front on Russia and China, where the allies’ interests do not always neatly align.

Biden’s delicate diplomatic offensive in Asia hit a bump even before Air Force One left US soil: a domestic budget row forced him to cancel stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia.

He arrived in Hiroshima on Thursday, becoming just the second US president after Barack Obama to visit a city levelled by his country’s “Little Boy” atomic bomb.

Russia’s 15-month-old invasion of Ukraine will top the agenda when the G7 summit gets underway on Friday. “We stand up for the shared values including supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereign territory and holding Russia accountable for its brutal aggression,” Biden said as he met Kishida.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said leaders would discuss battlefield developments and tightening a sanctions regime that, according to official statistics, caused Russia’s economy to contract a further 1.9 per cent last quarter.

Summit discussions on China are expected to focus on efforts to insulate G7 economies from potential economic blackmail, by diversifying supply chains and markets.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2023