Preliminary G-7 Talks Discuss Terrorism, Refuges, China, and Nuclear Weapons

n Sunday, April 10, 2016, seven foreign ministers gathered in Hiroshima, Japan to discuss topics of great concern prior to May’s G-7 Summit in Mie Prefecture, Japan. The initial set of talks were arranged after the March 22 Brussels terrorist attacks.The G-7 group is made up of Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.

The two day meeting between world leaders to address global concerns from terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and maritime security.

On the first day of the meeting the ministers discussed global concerns such as terrorism and the Syrian refuge crisis. Terrorism is the most concerning problem Europe is facing right now as frequent attacks by the Islamic State (IS) have devastated countries like France and Belgium. However, Asia has also become targeted by IS as with the case with last January’s attack in Jakarta, Indonesia as well as the August 2015 bombing in Bangkok, Thailand and repeated attacks in India and Pakistan which are hitting these emerging markets economies.

While Japan has not experienced a major terrorist attack there was concern by Japanese officials in regards to the security for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Japanese foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, emphasized the importance of mutual cooperation between the G-7 states in tackling the refuge crisis. This past weekend clashes occurred in Macedonia when refuges stormed the border and police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Kishida described how Japan wants to see the creation of the “Hiroshima Declaration”, which is calling for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. His comments seemed to be directly aimed at China who is one of five nations recognized under the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), that does not disclose its warhead count, and is suspected of increasing their warhead supply. Japan wants the NPT to make make annual checks on China and report their warhead count.

Kishida reminded the G7 panel that atomic bombs literally wiped Hiroshima off the face of the earth during World War II and killed 140,000.

Japan is also concerned about China’s involvement in the South China Sea which all foreign members agreed was becoming a problem. Parts of the South China Sea have been claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, and the Philippines, but China has continuously and aggressively implemented its influence over almost the whole area. China has implemented militarization of islands in the region and also begun a questionable land reclamation campaign.

Without mentioning China by name the G-7 group stated, “that all states refrain from any action such as land reclamations, for example, building out posts for military purposes.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang when he heard of the G-7 committees statement about the South China Sea noted for them to use caution when discriminating against Beijing.

Critics of the G-7 and similar summits claim the group does not pay attention to serious global issues until its too late, and that they try and control the direction of the world.

All of these issues from terrorism, refuges, nuclear proliferation, and China will take much more than seven nations, and countries not included as part of these groups rarely abide by recommendations summit provides.