Although nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation will be a key — and symbolic — topic of discussion at next week’s Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, U.S. President Joe Biden is unlikely to deliver a separate statement on the issue when he becomes the second American president to visit the atomic-bombed city, Japan’s ambassador to the United States has said.
“We are not going to try to ask President Biden to come up with a specific message this time because this is not a bilateral visit,” Ambassador Koji Tomita said during a news conference in Washington on Tuesday. Instead, Japan will aim to have the G7 leaders release a “strong message” on the issue of nuclear weapons, likely in a joint statement.
But Tomita noted that a united and strong message from G7 countries would come as nuclear concerns proliferate worldwide, from Russia’s threats against Ukraine to North Korea’s increasingly powerful arsenal.
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