Wednesday 27 / November / 2024
Tokyo: Foreign Ministers from the G7 countries--Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the European Union, and the United States--have pledged to continue their endeavours towards a free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive, prosperous, secure, based on the rule of law, and that protects shared principles.
The G7 foreign ministers also reaffirmed their unwavering support for ASEAN centrality and unity. "We continue to promote cooperation in line with the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and the Pacific Islands Forum's 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, respectively," read the joint statement of G7 countries.
The G7 foreign ministers reiterated their commitment to support sustainable, inclusive, resilient and quality infrastructure in partner countries through the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
"We welcome Japan's safe, transparent, and science-based process, including the continued monitoring of the situation, to responsibly manage the discharge of Advanced Liquid Processing System-treated water by proactively coordinating with scientists and partners, particularly across the Indo-Pacific region, as well as with the IAEA," read the G7 Japan 2023 Foreign Ministers' Statement.
The minister acknowledged the reported monitoring results after each discharge to date, showing that the concentration of nuclides, including tritium, in seawater and marine products is far below internationally recognized standards.
They condemned North Korea's continuing build-up of its unlawful weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs. "We reiterate our call for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons, existing nuclear programs, and any other WMD and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner in accordance with all relevant UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs)," the ministers said.
The G7 foreign minister then called on all UN Member States to fully and effectively implement all relevant UNSCRs and urge UNSC members to follow through on their commitments.
"In this context, we strongly condemn arms transfers from North Korea to Russia, which directly violate relevant UNSCRs. We urge Russia and North Korea to immediately cease all such activities. We deplore North Korea's systematic human rights violations and its choice to prioritise its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programmes over the welfare of the people in North Korea. We also urge North Korea to resolve the abductions issue immediately," they said.
Foreign ministers from G7 countries met in Tokyo this week to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and the Ukraine conflict while making efforts to prevent a regional conflagration.
