WASHINGTON/PARIS, May 17 (Reuters) – The longest shadows
at the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit this week will be
cast by two countries that weren’t even invited to the Hiroshima
gathering: China and Russia.
As the heads of the world’s advanced democracies meet for
three days from Friday in the western Japanese city, they will
need to overcome some differences of their own, officials say,
as they aim to project unity against challenges from Beijing and
Moscow.
Divisions within the G7 appear to be the most notable over
China, multiple officials told Reuters, with countries grappling
on how to warn against what they see as China’s threat to global
supply chains and economic security without completely
alienating a powerful and important trade partner.
The G7 countries — the United States, Japan, Germany, the
United Kingdom, France, Canada and Italy — are all closely tied
economically to China, the world’s second-largest economy and a
key global manufacturing base and market.
How the G7 will deal with the “great power competition” is
an important issue for the summit, said Narushige Michishita, a
professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
(GRIPS) in Tokyo.
“They have to address economic security and how to deal with
sensitive technologies,” Michishita said. “Everything is part of
the great power competition that is taking place between the
United States and Russia, and the United States and China.”
Their differences on China were put in sharp focus after
French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beijing last month and
called for the European Union to reduce its dependence on the
United States.
A senior U.S. administration official told Reuters this week
the summit would show leaders unified behind a common approach
to China, although he acknowledged it was “one of the more
complex issues” for the meeting.
QUESTION OF LANGUAGE
The leaders are also set to discuss concern about China’s
use of “economic coercion” in its dealings abroad as part of
their larger joint statement, with that main statement set to
include a “section specific to China” Reuters has reported.
There will be a number of other declarations, senior German
government sources have said, including on Ukraine, economic
resilience and security, food security and others.
“I would call this a geopolitical G7, which will tackle a
massive security crisis, which is the Russian aggression against
Ukraine,” a French presidency official said.
“It’s also geopolitical because tensions between China and
the United States are increasing and so we need to express the
rules of the game so that we can preserve our international
cooperation capacities,” the official said.
Leaders from a number of other countries, including India
and Vietnam, are also among those expected to attend as
observers. The G7 is looking to draw closer to members of the
“Global South” to counter China’s role on the global stage.
But it remains to be seen how direct the language will be
toward China. Some G7 members are sceptical about signing on to
controls on investment into China.
While April’s meeting of G7 foreign ministers acknowledged
“the need to work together with China on global challenges” and
reiterated its call for Beijing to act “as a responsible member
of the international community”, neither the group’s climate nor
finance chiefs directly mentioned China in their communiques.
The United States is at the forefront in pushing for
stronger investment controls, yet Germany is more cautious,
given its heavy reliance on trade with Beijing.
Germany wants to see screening of investments in targeted
areas, not across the board, senior German government officials
have said.
Japan is also sceptical about investment controls.
FROM RUSSIA TO TAIWAN
The leaders also plan to tighten sanctions on Russia, with
steps aimed at energy and exports aiding Moscow’s war effort,
officials with direct knowledge of the talks have told Reuters.
The new moves will target sanctions evasion involving third
countries, and seek to undermine Russia’s future energy
production and curb trade that supports Russia’s military, they
said.
On Russia’s invasion of Ukraine there are differences in
strategy on how to end the conflict.
The United States doesn’t want to talk about a diplomatic
path forward until it sees how the spring military offensive
plays out, officials have said, even as its European allies want
it to have a diplomatic solution in hand.
“From a European perspective, it’s about Ukraine’s partners
doing everything they can to accelerate its victory,” a European
official said, adding that Europe’s response to challenges from
the United States and China were also important.
“We have to also learn to defend our interests,” the
official said.
For host Japan, it wants to send a clear message about the
importance of the international, rules-based order, officials
have said, as Tokyo worries that Russia’s actions against
Ukraine could embolden China’s action against Taiwan.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in WASHINGTON and John Irish in
Paris; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Kentaro
Sugiyama, Kaori Kaneko, Yoshifumi Takemoto, Tetsushi Kajimoto,
Katya Golubkova and Sakura Murakami in TOKYO, Writing by Katya
Golubkova; Editing by David Dolan and Kim Coghill)
