MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th January, 2023) Effective measures to counter economic pressure and coercion will be one of the topics of the Japan-hosted G7 summit in May, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said.
"We expect effective responses to economic coercion will be a major agenda item at this year's G7 summit," Nishimura told a lecture at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday.
The minister also noted that economic coercion is a "clear and present danger" that needs to be confronted.
"We might need to make preparations to identify the choke points of countries wanting to engage in (economic) coercion and then take countermeasures, if necessary," Nishimura added.
Japan will chair the G7 multilateral platform in 2023. The top-level G7 summit will be held in the city of Hiroshima from May 19-21. The Group of Seven largest economies includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
In December, Japanese media reported that Tokyo was hoping to arrange a visit by G7 leaders during the 2023 summit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, dedicated to documenting the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the United States at the end of World War II. So far, the only sitting leader of a nuclear power to visit the museum was former US President Barack Obama in 2016.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be visiting France, Italy, the UK, Canada and the US from January 9-13 to hold bilateral talks with the countries' leaders and seek their cooperation for the G7 summit success. There will also be a 2+2 meeting between US and Japanese defense and foreign ministers in Washington on January 11.
