Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks with reporters in Tokyo on May 18 before flying to Hiroshima to prepare to chair the Group of Seven summit. (Ikuro Aiba)

HIROSHIMA--Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived here on May 18 to prepare to welcome the other leaders to the Group of Seven summit to begin tomorrow but already has a full dance card the day before. 

Later on May 18, Kishida was scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with U.S. President Joe Biden, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Prior to leaving from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport for Hiroshima, Kishida met with reporters and expressed his goals for the summit. 

“We will once again confirm our resolve to work for a world without nuclear weapons and we hope to transmit to the world our strong determination to protect the free and open international order based on the rule of law,” he said. 

Kishida will welcome the other G-7 leaders at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 19 for the start of the three-day summit.

Meanwhile, several government sources disclosed some of the content to be included in the leaders’ communique to be released on May 21.

Government officials were working to include clear wording in the communique calling on nations to stop providing Russia with weapons for use against Ukraine.

The communique is also expected to include instructions from the G-7 leaders to their relevant Cabinet ministers to compile by year-end their views regarding copyright protection and measures to deal with fake information in relation to generative artificial intelligence.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine will be the main point of the G-7 agenda and attention will focus on the extent to which the leaders can apply additional pressure on Russia by closing as many as loopholes as possible to strengthen economic sanctions.

After the April meeting of G-7 foreign ministers, a communique was released that referred to nations providing Russia with products that could be converted for military use and said the G-7 nations “call on third parties to cease assistance to Russia’s war, or face severe costs.”

Similar wording is expected to be included in the leaders’ communique, sources said.

The communique will also criticize Russia for threatening to use nuclear weapons and is expected to include wording about the importance of continuing with the policy of not using nuclear weapons and to maintain a reduction in the number of such weapons.

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