Blinken, in Parley at Japan, Attempts To Forge Unity on Threats From Russia, China, and North Korea

Call it a dress rehearsal: Looking ahead to next month’s summit of the Group of Seven major industrialized democracies, the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is in Japan taking aim at the looming threat of China, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the menace of North Korean nukes and missiles. The occasion is a gathering of the G-7 foreign ministers at the posh resort town of Karuizawa in the mountains north of Tokyo. Their meetings Monday and Tuesday are setting the stage for the summit at Hiroshima, May 19 to 21, at which President Biden will press for unflagging support for Ukraine against Russia and for Taiwan against Communist China.That Japan is hosting the G-7 meeting of ministers and then the summit adds to the significance of their talks — Japan is the only Asian country among them. The Japanese are hoping, by hosting the foreign ministers and then the chiefs of state, they can move closer not only to America but also to the five other G-7 countries, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada.Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, quoted an official as saying that Japan “would like the ministers to affirm the alignment between Japan and the United States on a range of issues” — and, by extension, to achieve mutual understanding among all seven countries. He singled out “the threat of the use of nuclear weapons,” as expressed by President Putin, an especially sensitive subject to Japan nearly 78 years after the atom-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.Japan’s foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said all seven member states should rally around the cause of Ukraine against the Russians by spurning “unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force.”Considering that Japan is far removed from Ukraine, the Japanese clearly have much more to fear from nearby countries that pose an immediate threat — Communist China and North Korea. Mr. Blinken was pressing for a strong statement on China that would make clear a unified view against Beijing’s constant intimidation of the Republic of China on Taiwan, the off-shore island that is governed democratically.Mr. Blinken arrived in Japan fresh from a visit to Hanoi half a century after withdrawal of the last American troops from what was then called “South Vietnam” led to the final victory two years later of “North Vietnam” in the Vietnam War.The tone of Mr. Blinken’s meetings at Hanoi was upbeat. He did not have to refer to the Vietnam War when he remarked that now was “an auspicious time to elevate our existing partnership.” The prime minister and leader of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Pham Minh Chinh, said his government was “eager to elevate our bilateral ties to a new height” — no doubt reflecting disputes between Vietnam and China over off-shore islands, fishing rights, and oil and gas resources deep under water. China, watching the G-7 from afar, is taking a dim view of whatever the Americans might be doing in the region.“The US is still trying to use regional issues to hype tensions and contain China,” the English-language Global Times, published by People’s Daily, the party newspaper, said. Washington, it said, “wants to preserve its hegemony and hype bloc confrontation to contain other major powers.”In fact, the G-7’s final statement, wrapping up the confab on Tuesday, might not be quite as strong as Tokyo and Washington might like. France may want to temper the language in the aftermath of President Macron’s recent summit at Beijing with President Xi. European nations, Mr. Macron said afterward, should carve out their own independent positions and not be “followers” of America.More immediately, the Japanese are concerned about North Korea, which has often test-fired missiles into the waters off Japan and, occasionally, over Japanese soil into the north Pacific. The G-7 ministers had no problem condemning last week’s launch of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile that looked as if it might be headed toward Japan before falling into the sea off the North Korean coast.Security for the G-7 was especially tight for quite a different reason — an attempt on the life of Prime Minister Kishida of Japan. A smoke bomb, tossed during a campaign stop the day before the G-7 meeting opened Sunday, was a grim reminder of the assassination nine months earlier of Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, also at a campaign stop.

Blinken, in Parley at Japan, Attempts To Forge Unity on Threats From Russia, China, and North Korea

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