G7 leaders are meeting in Japan this weekend amid global fears of a US debt default, a growing division over energy policy and no end in sight to the war in Ukraine.
But for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the main challenge of the annual summit of advanced economies will be whether it can project a unified G7 response to China’s military ambitions and its use of “economic coercion”, such as the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. described it last week.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kishida has attempted to align with G7 counterparts in the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany and Canada by rolling out tough sanctions against Moscow and forging closer ties with the NATO alliance. He also endorsed a significant increase in Japan’s military spending to counter the Chinese threat.
When he hosted the summit in his family’s hometown of Hiroshima, Kishida – who has repeatedly warned that “Ukraine could be East Asia tomorrow” – will want equally strong support from Europe on how the G7 should approach China and the risk of a conflict over Taiwan.
“It is crucial that the G7 confirm that any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force or coercion is unacceptable in any part of the world,” Kishida said last month. “I think this will lead to a unified response from the international community when something similar to Ukraine happens outside of Europe.”
The issue has been divisive for the west. French President Emmanuel Macron sparked an international outcry last month when he warned during a trip to China that Europe must not be “caught up in crises that are not ours”.
“The G7 has risen for the moment in the Ukrainian crisis. . . But the Indo-Pacific presents its own challenges in the wake of Macron’s comments,” said Mireya Solís, Japan expert at the Brookings Institution. “Tokyo would like to see a strong statement that the group of democracies is aligned in the face of the China challenge.”
The United States is also pushing for as united a front as possible. President Joe Biden’s administration has begun to point out that his China the policy focuses on “risk reduction” and not on “decoupling”. US officials adopted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s phrase in an attempt to reassure G7 allies that the United States was not pushing for a more drastic approach from Beijing.
One of the main objectives of the Hiroshima summit will be to determine the extent to which member countries can define a concerted response to Beijing’s request. searches of foreign companies and detention of company directors.
The G7 plans to issue a separate statement on economic security for the first time alongside the main summit communiqué. The statement will include a pledge to “collectively deter, respond to and counter economic coercion”, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.
People familiar with the talks say, however, that China will not be named in the statement and that the G7 is unlikely to reach agreement on specific new economic security tools beyond blockchain cooperation. to reduce their dependence on China.
China argued it was “the victim of US economic coercion” rather than a perpetrator, saying Washington had overstepped the concept of national security and “abused” the use of export controls.
“If the G7 summit is to discuss the response to economic coercion, perhaps it should first discuss what the United States has done,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday. Wang Wenbin. “As the host of the G7, would Japan express some of these concerns to the United States on behalf of the rest of the group that has been bullied by the United States? Or at least say a few words of the truth?
Last year, the United States introduced sweeping export controls that would severely complicate efforts by Chinese companies to develop cutting-edge technologies with military applications. Washington is now seeking the support of its allies as it finalizes a new outbound investment screening mechanism aimed at China.
“It is possible to reach an agreement on the importance of economic security, but there is still a significant gap between the United States, the EU and Japan regarding the deployment of offensive measures such as control exports,” said Kazuto Suzuki, a professor at the university. from Tokyo. In March, Japan unveiled edges on the export of 23 different types of technology under an agreement with the United States and the Netherlands, but Tokyo officials stressed that the measures did not target just one country.
Deep economic ties with China also make the EU reluctant to follow Washington’s hardline approach. European capitals fear a return to a Cold War situation, with China in place of the USSR, leaving Europe at best an American satellite and at worst a battleground between the two.
European officials stressed that the G7 should increase its contacts with other countries, in particular the developing economies of Asia, Africa and South America. “[Our] the goal is not to turn the G7 into an anti-China club,” said a senior EU official involved in preparing for the G7.
The G7 has invited leaders from non-member countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil and Vietnam to the Hiroshima summit.
“We would like to strengthen the reach of the G7 with international partners through . . . calls for cooperation to address the challenges facing the international community. . . such as energy and food security, climate change, health and development,” Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s foreign minister, said in a written interview with the Financial Times. “We would like to affirm the unity of the G7 in this regard.”
The comments come even as the G7 remains divided on energy policy, including Japan’s. promoting ammonia as a low carbon energy source and pressure from Germany for the G7 to approve public investments in the gas sector.
Christopher Johnstone, Japanese chairman of the US think tank CSIS, said Tokyo still wanted to engage with non-G7 countries because Russia’s G20 membership had fractured that larger group.
“Tokyo is concerned that this has opened the door to broader Chinese influence in the developing world, where criticism of Western hypocrisy resonates,” Johnstone said. “Kishida is trying to tone it down by bringing more voices to the G7 table.”
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