China and Russia big elephants at Japan’s G7 summit

The longest shadows at the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit this weekend will be cast by two countries that were not even invited to the Hiroshima gathering China and Russia.

As the heads of the world’s advanced democracies meet for three days from today 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 said, 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 US,

Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Canada and Italy are all closely tied economically to China, the world’s secondlargest economy and a key global manufacturing base and market.

How the G7 would deal with the “great power competition” was an important issue for the summit, Narushige Michishita, from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (Grips) in Tokyo, said.

“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 US and Russia, and the US and China.”

Their differences on China were put in sharp focus after French President Emmanuel Macron in Beijing last month called for the EU to reduce its dependence on the US.

A senior US administration official said the summit would show leaders unified behind a common approach to China, though he acknowledged it was one of the more complex issues for the meeting.

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.

There will be a number of other declarations, senior German government sources have said, including on Ukraine, economic resilience and security, food security and other things.

“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 US are increasing and so we need to express the rules of the game so that we can preserve our international co-operation capacities.”

Leaders from a number of other countries, including India and Vietnam, are 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 towards China.

Some G7 members are sceptical about signing on to controls on investment into China.

While last month’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 US 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.

The leaders also plan to tighten sanctions on Russia, with steps aimed at energy and exports aiding Moscow’s war effort, officials have said.

The new moves will target sanctions evasion involving third countries, and seek to undermine Russia’s energy production and trade that supports Russia’s military.

On Russia’s invasion of Ukraine there are differences in strategy on how to end the conflict.

The US does not want to talk about a diplomatic path forward until it sees how the spring military offensive plays out, officials 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 US 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