Significance of G7 Summit

 

The three-day G-7 summit kicked off on Friday in Hiroshima. This is the seventh time Japan is hosting the meeting, the last time being in 2016 in Ise-Shima, a scenic coastal site in Mie prefecture. Directly on the heels of that gathering, Barack Obama paid a visit to Hiroshima - the first time a sitting US President had done so - which somewhat overshadowed the summit itself. In Obama's famous 17-minute speech at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, he asked, "Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in a not so distant past. ... That is why we come to Hiroshima, so that we might think of people we love - the first smile from our children in the morning; the gentle touch from a spouse over the kitchen table; the comforting embrace of a parent." Seven years on, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was elected from a Hiroshima district, stands at the center of the stage, welcoming the G-7 leaders. Chairing the summit in Hiroshima has been one of Kishida's top priorities since the beginning of his premiership. In an exclusive interview with Nikkei for this week's Big Story, he said, "It is crucial to invite world leaders and young people to the site of the atomic bombing and allow them to see the consequences of the destruction." Published just ahead of the summit, the story provides a comprehensive overview of Kishida's foreign policy agenda and explains what he hopes to achieve at the meeting, in his own words as well as those of diplomats and experts. This is a must-read for anyone seeking a more nuanced understanding of the summit.