Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday that the Group of Seven leaders will show their resolve to promote a world without nuclear weapons when they meet later this week in Hiroshima.
The G-7 "will send out a strong message to realize a world free of nuclear weapons and will steadily proceed with more realistic and concrete efforts," Kishida said during an interview with Kyodo News and other media outlets at the prime minister's office.
Kishida will host the three-day summit from Friday in his home constituency of Hiroshima, which was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945, amid growing concerns that Russia may use a nuclear weapon against Ukraine in its invasion of the country, ongoing since February last year.
The G-7 leaders are expected to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which is dedicated to documenting the world's first use of a nuclear weapon during war, and meet with atomic bomb survivors, known as hibakusha in Japan.
"Conveying the reality of the nuclear attack is important as a starting point for all nuclear disarmament efforts," Kishida said.
Kishida has said that on the opening day of the summit, he will welcome the leaders of the group's member states, comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union, at the Peace Memorial Park, built in memory of the victims near where the nuclear bomb detonated.
The prime minister also said the G-7 will seek to send a strong message to the world that in order to protect the international order, they will not accept "unilateral attempts by China and Russia to change the status quo by force," in the face of Moscow's war in Ukraine and Beijing's military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
The G-7 leaders will also discuss issues ranging from energy, food security to climate change. To deal with those problems, Kishida said, the group needs to fully cooperate with the entire world, including the "Global South," a term collectively referring to emerging and developing countries in areas such as Asia and Africa.
Beside the G-7 members, Australia, Brazil, Comoros, Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam have been invited to the gathering as guests.
In the field of technology, Kishida said Japan intends to take a leading role in debates over how to use artificial intelligence in a responsible manner.
He said he will launch the "Hiroshima AI Process," which includes the creation of international rules, as governments have been pushing to harness rapidly developing technologies such as AI bot ChatGPT while mitigating risks to privacy and addressing other concerns.
Amid speculation Kishida may dissolve the House of Representatives for a snap election after the summit, Kishida denied the possibility to do so "for now," and said "I will decide appropriately based on the future situation."
