This year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, titled Laboratory for the Future, was inaugurated on the same day that the leaders of the G7 industrialised nations met in Hiroshima. As different as these events appeared, both signalled the end of globalisation. Both also displayed the promise and perils of a fragmenting world. Of all the arts, architecture is the most globally homogenising. Erecting tropical copycats of Paris and London was a staple of European colonial policy. Today, the same glass-and-steel tower blocks dot interchangeable financial capitals the world over. But the 2023…
Tag: G7
Ukraine urges G7 to clamp down after western parts found in Russian missiles
Western microchips and other components coming largely via China are being used to manufacture Russian cruise and ballistic missiles that are being launched at Ukraine, Kyiv has said in a presentation prepared for G7 members this week. The document, leaked to the Guardian, calls for the world’s leading economies to “pressure countries who fail to act decisively”, without naming Beijing directly, as well as a plea to further tighten export controls. Russia, Kyiv says, “has adapted to sanctions” and will produce 1,061 missiles this year, more than double the 512…
Going west: inside the 26 May Guardian Weekly
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s surprise turn at last weekend’s G7 meeting in Hiroshima was the climax of a round of shuttle diplomacy in which the Ukrainian president secured yet more funds and equipment from western nations. But more than that was Zelenskiy’s apparent realisation that the balance of the war might not be swayed in London and Berlin but in the global south, a grouping of world nations that until now have largely avoided taking sides in the conflict. Patrick Wintour ponders the complex wider issues at stake for western leaders who…
China hits back at G7 nations, accusing them of ‘smears’ and ‘slander’
Beijing has accused the G7 nations of collaborating to “smear and attack” China, after the weekend summit issued a communique that warned Beijing over its “militarisation activities” in the Asia-Pacific region. After the summit, China summoned the Japanese ambassador to register an official protest, and warned the UK to stop “slandering” the country to avoid further damage to bilateral relations. Chinese regulators also chose the weekend to announce that US chip firm, Micron Technology, had failed a security review and would be banned from use in Chinese critical infrastructure. The…
Zelenskiy uses G7 summit to reach beyond the west for support
Normally G7 summits are about battling for the free world comma by comma, as diplomats parse lengthy communiques of ephemeral significance long into the night. Words, after all, constitute much of a diplomat’s work. At the Hiroshima G7 some of the communiques emerging from the summit do matter, notably the toolbox on de-risking trade with China, but the true significance of the summit lay in Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s scene-stealing visit courtesy of a ride in Emmanuel Macron’s French aircraft. It was the culmination of a Ukrainian realisation that for months they…
China poses biggest threat to global security, says Sunak
China poses the biggest challenge to global security and prosperity of our age with the “means and intent to reshape the world order”, Rishi Sunak has said. The UK prime minister said G7 leaders including Japan, the US, Canada and European nations had shown “unity and resolve” in confronting the problems posed by Beijing. The statement from the G7 nations referred to “de-risking” rather than “de-coupling” from their relationship with China amid warnings from France that the summit should not be seen as being anti-Beijing. However, Sunak went further than…
Australia, India, Japan and US take thinly veiled swipe at China
The leaders of the Quad group – Australia, India, Japan and the United States – delivered a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s behaviour on Saturday at a summit in Hiroshima. The US president, Joe Biden, and his three partners in the group did not mention China by name but the communist superpower was clearly the target of language in a joint statement calling for “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain”. “We strongly oppose destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,”…
G7 leaders warn China and North Korea against expanding nuclear arsenals as they await Zelenskiy
G7 leaders have warned China and North Korea against expanding their nuclear arsenals, as they prepare for the arrival of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The war in Ukraine has dominated discussions in Hiroshima, with Zelenskiy set to arrive in the city late on Saturday, a day after the White House announced it would permit allied countries to supply Ukraine with US-built F-16 fighter planes. Zelenskiy described the decision as “historic”, adding that he looked forward to “discussing the practical implementation” in Hiroshima. Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised fears…
Sunak to urge G7 support for collective action against ‘economic coercion’
The UK and other G7 countries are planning collective action against Russia and China if they threaten trade boycotts for political reasons, announcing a new body to deal with “economic coercion”. Rishi Sunak will urge “bold and pragmatic collective action” against hostile states that stop trading with other countries when they disagree with their geopolitical decisions. He will cite Russia’s stranglehold on European gas supplies last year as a situation that could have been met with a collective response. Other examples include China’s punitive tariffs on Australian wine after Canberra…
As G7 leaders start to arrive, Japan PM prepares push in Hiroshima for nuclear weapons pledge
The war in Ukraine and Chinese aggression towards Taiwan will dominate G7 discussions this week, but host Fumio Kishida is expected to carve out time to push for a pledge on nuclear weapons when leaders meet in Hiroshima, the first place on Earth targeted by an atomic bomb. The leaders began to arrive on Thursday, ahead of an expected visit on Saturday to the city’s Peace Memorial Museum, which contains exhibits showing the scale of the tragedy that unfolded after the US dropped a nuclear bomb on the morning of…