Biden leaves for Hiroshima to attend G-7 summit

5 comments

1. Based on Kyodo sources and a couple of press briefings.^1

   >WASHINGTON (Kyodo) — U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday departed for Hiroshima to attend this year’s Group of Seven summit, cutting short his original weeklong itinerary in the Asia-Pacific region as he needs to continue domestic negotiations toward averting an unprecedented default.

   >He will become the second sitting U.S. president after Barack Obama to visit the western Japanese city, where the first atomic bomb attack in history was carried out by the United States in the closing days of World War II in 1945.

   >At the three-day summit of the major industrialized democracies, set to begin Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida serving as chair, major topics to be discussed include Russia’s war in Ukraine, nuclear disarmament, promotion of a rules-based international order and diversifying supply chains.

   >Biden may also have a trilateral meeting with Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has been invited as a guest to G-7 discussions, as well as a number of bilateral meetings on the fringes of the gathering.

   > 

   >Biden’s change of plans also caused Australia to cancel a summit of the Quad group slated for May 24 in Sydney.

   >Japanese government sources said they are trying to see whether the Quad meeting, also involving India and Japan, can be arranged for Sunday in Hiroshima instead, with China’s rise and its behavior in the Indo-Pacific likely to top the agenda.

   ^1 Kyodo News (18 May 2023), “Biden leaves for Hiroshima to attend G-7 summit”, https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230518/p2g/00m/0in/004000c

2. ok

3. what do you think Biden’s go-to conbini is

4. Good. Xi’s bellicosity and self-entitlement needed a reality check 15 years ago. Seriously needs to be reigned in. He’s the biggest existential threat of this century and will be the smug self-anointed architect of WWIII.

5. Praying north korea doesn’t do something stupid again