US Secretary of State John Kerry and other G7 foreign ministers yesterday began two days of talks on global hotspot issues in Hiroshima, where the first ever visit to the city by a US secretary of state is overshadowing the broader agenda.
Kerry’s trip is seen as possibly paving the way for US Barack Obama to become the first serving US president to journey to the thriving metropolis next month when he visits Japan for a G7 summit.
The Hiroshima meeting includes top diplomats from nuclear-armed Britain and France, as well as Canada, Germany, Italy, host Japan and also the EU.
Photo: AP
The gathering is part of the run-up to the G7’s rotating annual leaders’ gathering to be held on May 26 and May 27 in the Ise-Shima region between Tokyo and Osaka.
Kerry arrived yesterday at a US military base west of Hiroshima from Afghanistan after having also made stops in Iraq and Bahrain.
Kerry, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Marc Ayrault and other ministers plan to discuss pressing issues including the Middle East, the refugee crisis, the conflict in Ukraine and terrorism.
Host Japan also hopes to highlight other concerns, such as rising territorial tensions in the South China Sea where Taiwan, China and some Southeast Asian nations have locked horns, and North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, who represents Hiroshima in parliament, also hopes to issue a “Hiroshima Declaration” at the meeting to promote nuclear disarmament.
“On this occasion, I want to send a strong message for peace and to realize a world free of nuclear weapons,” Kishida said at a welcome reception.
Kerry and the other ministers are scheduled to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which houses the ruins of the iconic domed building gutted by the US nuclear attack in 1945, and an accompanying museum.
When asked about its place under Washington’s nuclear umbrella, Kishida said ahead of the meeting that Japan knows the world’s security realities, citing North Korea, for example, as a key threat.
“We can never separate disarmament from the global security environment or strategic stability considerations, or divorce it from our security commitments to friends and allies,” Kerry said in a written interview with the Chugoku Shimbun newspaper. “Progress on nuclear disarmament must be made in a way that reduces nuclear and security risks for ourselves, our allies and all humankind.”
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