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G7 ministers rally support for Ukraine, suspicion of China
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G7 ministers rally support for Ukraine, suspicion of China

Top diplomats from the world’s major industrialized democracies are rallying support for Ukraine and coming together to voice suspicion of China’s increasing assertiveness.

International

Top diplomats from the world’s major industrialized democracies on Friday rallied support for Ukraine in its resistance to Russia’s invasion and coalesced around suspicion of China’s increasing assertiveness amid a panoply of global crises.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations, wrapping up two days of talks in the historic western German city of Muenster, were set to release a statement asserting common positions on Ukraine, Russia, China and recent developments in Iran and North Korea, officials said.

A year after warning Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine, the G-7 ministers were expected to endorse further punishments for the Kremlin and additional backing for Kyiv and countries affected by food and energy shortages that the war has exacerbated, the officials said.

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“It is incredibly important that we retain our strategic endurance, the willingness to stick with this until this is done, both to support the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against aggression but also to lift the pressure off those countries around the world, those people around the world who are already experiencing food insecurity and are pushed even closer to famine,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.

Along with the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States comprise the G-7.

The ministers will also call out Iran for allegedly supplying weapons to Russia and a brutal crackdown on antigovernment protesters. Their statement will further condemn the recent escalation of tensions in Asia caused by North Korean military activity.

“As a collective G-7, our work is to ensure that we maintain peace, bring back peace also to the region, and we are there to protect these international norms,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said.

One senior U.S. official said the group of advanced economies had demonstrated “remarkable” unity on virtually all major issues despite often competing domestic interests and priorities, particularly in regards to China's growing economic clout and global ambitions even as the leader of G-7 host Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits Beijing.

In a side meeting between Cleverly, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their French and German counterparts, the State Department said the four had agreed on the need for “consistent support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal war of aggression” and had also discussed a common approach to “Iran’s military support of Russia and its violent crackdown and suppression of the Iranian people.”