G-7 Foreign Chiefs Agree to Ramp Up Sanctions on Russia

Munich, Feb. 18 (Jiji Press)--Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven major democracies agreed Saturday to strengthen sanctions on Russia over its continued military aggression against Ukraine and continue supporting the country under attack.

The ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union reaffirmed their unity over the Russian war on Ukraine, at a meeting held in Munich, which was also joined by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

This was the first G-7 foreign ministers' meeting chaired by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. Japan holds this year's G-7 presidency.

The meeting also took up North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile the same day, which fell into waters within Japan's exclusive economic zone off an island in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido. A chairman's statement adopted at the meeting said that the ministers "condemned" the missile firing "in the strongest terms" and that the launch is "in blatant violation" of relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and "threatens regional and international peace and security."

At the start of the meeting, Hayashi called for close cooperation among the G-7 over the North Korean launch. The G-7 ministers then discussed the situation in Ukraine and other issues.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]