The United States has decided on “significant” new sanctions against the “Russian war machine,” a senior U.S. official said shortly before the start of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, western Japan, on Friday, which will be attended by President Joe Biden. , reports AFP. The French press indicates, at the same time, what the leaders who will participate in this meeting hope for.

The US initiative comes at a time when leaders of major industrialized democracies, including Japan, must agree on tougher measures against Russia and find common ground in the face of China’s growing military and economic power.

According to a high-ranking official of the Biden administration, the US measures are aimed at “significantly limiting Russia’s access to products necessary for its combat capabilities.”

They will prevent “approximately 70 entities in Russia and other countries from receiving goods exported from the U.S. by adding them to the Commerce Department’s blacklist,” the official added, citing more than 300 new sanctions against “people, entities, vessels and aircraft” from around the world. Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Other G7 members, which include the US, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Canada, are also preparing to “implement new sanctions and curb exports”, he said.

The G7 will work to cut off Russian military supplies, close sanctions-violating loopholes, further reduce its dependence on Russian energy, continue to limit Moscow’s access to the international financial system, and use Russian asset freezes until the end of the war.

The G7 is targeting the Russian diamond industry and wants to make India an ally

A representative of the European Union announced on Thursday that the G7 talks will focus on Russia’s diamond industry, which brings Moscow several billion dollars each year.

“We believe in limiting the export of Russian trade in this sector,” the source said, adding that the inclusion of India, one of the main importers of diamonds, would also be crucial to the success of any new venture.

The G7 leaders will be able to present their proposal directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country has close military ties with Russia and has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

India is one of eight third-party countries whose leaders have been invited to the Hiroshima summit: a way for the G7 to try to enlist some reluctant states to confront Russia’s war in Ukraine and Beijing’s growing military ambitions.

Tension due to Zelenskyi’s participation

On the weekend, it is expected that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, will speak via video conference. The Japanese government has ruled out his personal visit, but speculation continues.

The G7 talks will officially begin on Friday afternoon Japan time after the leaders visit the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.

Heads of state and government will lay wreaths at the Hiroshima Cenotaph, which commemorates the 140,000 people who died when the US dropped an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.

Japan wants to put nuclear disarmament on the agenda

“I hope that here in Hiroshima, the G7 and other leaders will show their commitment to a peace that history will remember,” said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has family and political roots in Hiroshima and would like to introduce disarmament. said on Thursday nuclear on the agenda.

Kishida’s expression of desire must remain symbolic, however, as the United States, Britain and France possess thousands of nuclear warheads, while other G7 members, including Japan, are covered by the US nuclear umbrella.

Hopes for progress on disarmament are further dampened by escalating tensions with other nuclear powers such as Russia, North Korea and China.

Biden, the second sitting US president to visit Hiroshima

Biden will become only the second sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, but like Barack Obama in 2016, he is unlikely to apologize to Japan.

Germany wants to get rid of dependence

In addition to Ukraine, the agenda will also be dominated by China and the diversification of G7 supply chains to protect against the risk of “economic coercion” by Beijing.

“We want to organize global supply, trade and investment relations in such a way that risks are not increased due to dependence on certain countries,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday, without mentioning China.

But it is clear that the event in Japan will also focus on the strategy that will be used to “counter China’s growing influence in the world.”

Almost at the same time as the G7, China hosts Putin’s allies for a summit

The meeting in Hiroshima comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday hosted his counterparts from five former Soviet Central Asian republics for a historic summit aimed at strengthening regional ties and pushing back Russian influence in Central Asia.

“Xi Jinping wants to present himself as a leader capable of promoting development and peace in the world,” Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of international relations at Bucknell University in the US, told AFP.