SOURCE: UNI
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is preparing to take the leaders of the invited countries to the G7 Summit, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Japan is welcoming the heads of government from the G7 countries for meetings in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima on May 19, 20, and 21. The three-day meeting will start from May 19 at Grand Prince Hotel Hiroshima.
The G7 leaders will be joined by the leaders of South Korea, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Comoros – as well as senior representatives from the European Union. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is joining in the summit online. Kishida will take Prime Minister Modi, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and other leaders of invited non-member G7 states, as well as the heads of seven international organizations including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to the Hiroshima Museum.
The visit to the museum is planned for May 19, as a group. PM Kishida will serve as a guide in an effort to build momentum for realizing a world without nuclear weapons, a report said. Opened 10 years after the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima to convey to the world the reality of nuclear warfare, the museum exhibits victims’ belongings and materials that show how the city looked before and after the attack. The museum will also be visited by G7 leaders such as U.S. President Joe Biden. Kishida hopes to create among the leaders a common understanding of the horrors of nuclear radiation and the need to abolish nuclear weapons, as part of his lifelong effort to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.
The Japanese government is also planning for a visit to the facility by the spouses of the G7 leaders, with Kishida’s wife, Yuko, expected to serve as a guide. Security is tight around the Peace Memorial Museum. Prime Minister Kishida, who represents Hiroshima constituency, visited the city and spoke to about 100 police and coast guard officers at the hotel on Saturday.
The officers are part of the contingent that are being deployed in the city and surrounding areas for the summit. PM Kishida inspected the Grand Prince Hotel Hiroshima, which will serve as the primary site for the summit; the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which the prime minister will visit with other G7 leaders; and Miyajima Island, home to Itsukushima Shrine, a World Heritage site. On August 8, 1945, a nuclear bomb killed 140,000 people in the city of Hiroshima.
Ever since, the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Hibakusha, live with the collective understanding that nuclear weapons must never be used again.Russia’s invasion is expected to top the agenda at the summit. Other topics will likely include the push to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. The G7 outcome document is expected to include the strengthening of support for food production in the Global South and the diversification of global food supply chains. The G-7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, plus the European Union.