Joint statement issued by G7 day before summit ends

Hiroshima (Japan): At their continuing annual meeting in Hiroshima, Japan's western city, the G7 leaders have hurried to issue a joint statement.

On Saturday afternoon, the G7 Hiroshima Leaders' statement was abruptly released in one single English form, and by 8 p.m. local time, the Japanese Foreign Ministry had given two amended versions to the on-site journalists.

It was an unusual move to release the document ahead of schedule as the three-day gathering will conclude on Sunday, local media reported, citing the usual practice of issuing a statement on the last day of the summit, Xinhua news agency reported.

Doubts have been raised as at previous Japan-hosted G7 summits the Japanese foreign ministry usually issued a statement in English and Japanese almost simultaneously on the very last day, local media reported.

Japan's national news agency Kyodo said the bloc might have decided to issue the joint statement in advance to make it noticeable, due to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's high-profile visit to Japan.

According to local media, Zelensky arrived in Hiroshima on Saturday and will attend a Ukraine-focused session with G7 leaders on Sunday.

The G7 consists of the US, Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Canada and Japan.

Amid waves of protests, the G7 leaders' annual summit opened in the western Japanese city on Friday. In Hiroshima's Funairi Daiichi Park, not far from the summit's venue, hundreds of protesters from all over Japan, even abroad, gathered to decry the finger-pointing bloc that advertises its own version of world order.

With inputs from IANS