G7 countries seek to bolster front against Russia and China

G7 leaders arrived in Hiroshima, Japan, on Thursday to mull tighter sanctions on Russia and counter measures against China's "economic coercion".

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is hosting the leaders from six other wealthy democracies in his hometown, the city that was devastated by the first of two nuclear bombs that ended WW2.

The city has been completely rebuilt, but dozens of peace monuments stand as memory of its bitter past. 

During three days, the G7 leaders will try to forge a "united front" on Russia and China. But the allies' interests do not always neatly align.

Russia's 15-month-old invasion of Ukraine will top the agenda when the G7 summit gets underway Friday, after a new spate of aerial attacks on Kyiv and a long winter of grinding warfare in Bakhmut, Marinka and other frontline towns.

"We stand up for the shared values including supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereign territory and holding Russia accountable for its brutal aggression," US President Joe Biden said as he met Kishida Thursday.

The United States and its allies have poured weaponry into Ukraine to stall the Russian advance, but a long-anticipated spring counteroffensive by Kyiv's forces has yet to materialise.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the group by video link.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said leaders would discuss battlefield developments and tightening a sanctions regime that, according to official statistics, caused Russia's economy to contract a further 1.9 percent last quarter.

G7 nations have already adopted sanctions on Russian banks and military firms, and placed price caps on Russian crude.

• French PM wants to continue sanctions on Russia to 'make the cost of the war unbearable'

Discussions are expected on tighter enforcement, and new measures on a range of goods, including Moscow's roughly $5 billion annual trade in diamonds.

Nuclear shadow   

Putin's repeated threats to turn the Ukraine conflict nuclear have been repeatedly condemned by G7 leaders, while some commentators dismiss it as an attempt to shake European and American morale.

But a leaders' visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Friday is likely to pull those threats into sharper focus.

The bombing on August 6, 1945, obliterated Hiroshima, claimed an estimated 140,000 lives and forever changed the world.

Kishida wants to use the summit to press his guests, nuclear powers Britain, France and the United States to commit to transparency on stockpiles and arsenal reductions.

But expectations for a breakthrough are low.

'Economic coercion'    

Summit discussions on China are expected to focus on efforts to insulate G7 economies from potential economic blackmail, by diversifying supply chains and markets.

In disputes with countries from Australia to Canada, President Xi Jinping's administration has shown a willingness to block, tax or hamper trade with little warning or explanation.

White House official Sullivan said leaders were expected to decry this "economic coercion" and work to bridge transatlantic differences about how to engage with China.

'Not an anti-China G7'?

Washington has taken an aggressive approach, blocking China's access to the most advanced semiconductors and the equipment to make them, and has pressed Japan and the Netherlands to follow suit.

• Netherlands lands in crossfire in US-China trade war

But European policymakers, most notably those in Berlin and Paris, are keen to make sure that "de-risking" does not mean shattering ties with China, one of the world's largest markets.

"This G7 is not an anti-Chinese G7," an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron told journalists before the summit.

• President Macron says China has 'major role' to play in Ukraine conflict

"We have a positive message for China, which is that we are ready to cooperate on condition that we negotiate together," the adviser added.

Host Japan is also keen to talk to developing nations that have been wooed by Chinese investment, with leaders from India, Brazil and Indonesia among those invited by Kishida to Hiroshima.

Evidence of Beijing's growing economic and diplomatic clout was on display Thursday in the former imperial capital Xi'an.

There, partly coinciding with the G-7, Xi is hosting the China-Central Asia summit - the "C+C5 Summit" with leaders of five Central Asian countries that were once seen as firmly in Moscow's orbit but are increasingly drawn to Beijing.

(with newswires)