Sunak lays out agenda as he heads for Japan G7 summit

Politics

Rishi Sunak has laid out his goals ahead of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

The PM is set to touchdown in the early hours of the morning on Thursday UK time.

It comes hot on the heels of his visit to Iceland for the Council of Europe summit.

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Rishi Sunak holds a huddle with political journalists on board a government plane as he heads to Japan to attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima
Image:
The PM spoke to journalists on the flight to Japan

But unlike the Reykjavik meeting, Mr Sunak is not putting migration policy centre stage of his visit to Japan.

Instead, he will be focusing on economic growth, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific region.

This will go alongside an “intense period of diplomatic activity” at the summit.

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Earlier this year, the UK was accepted into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which includes Japan.

This is part of the government’s post-Brexit agenda to increase economic growth and investment in the UK.

Mr Sunak said: “You’ll see tomorrow in Tokyo where we’re going to announce investment into the UK which is fantastic news, and a great bit of confidence.”

The PM will also on Thursday sign the “Hiroshima Accords” with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

The agreement will include commitments on “defence, trade and investment, science and technology collaboration, and joint work on tackling global issues like climate change”.

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Also, high up on Mr Sunak’s agenda will be the war in Ukraine.

The G7 – up until the 2014 annexation of Crimea – used to include Russia.

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States are the current members.

The leaders recently signed a joint statement committing to “intensifying our diplomatic, financial and military support for Ukraine, to increasing the costs to Russia and those supporting its war effort, and to continuing to counter the negative impacts of the war on the rest of the world, particularly on the most vulnerable people”.

Mr Sunak said the group will be “continuing our leadership on Ukraine”, and that he will be “talking to my colleagues about maintaining and enhancing our support for Kyiv” – in both the short term and long term.

And while Mr Sunak earlier ruled out fast-tracking Taiwan’s entrance to the CPTPP – as called for by Liz Truss – the Indo-Pacific region will still feature.

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He said discussions will be on both economic and security matters.

The PM added that, “specifically in regard to China”, the G7 will make sure they are “aligned in our approach in protecting ourselves against the risk and challenges that China poses”.

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