TOKYO, June 9. /TASS/. Russia’s constructive participation in the solution of major international conflicts like the Syrian crisis, the Iranian nuclear programme and the situation on the Korean Peninsula is necessary, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told NHK television on Tuesday upon completion of an annual summit of the Group of Seven in Elmau, southern Germany.
Considering the current situation in Ukraine, there are no conditions at present for reverting to the Group of Eight format embracing Russia, Abe said adding that the aforementioned problems required cooperation with Russia. As he mentioned the G7 summit of 2016 that will be held in Ise Shima wildlife preserve in Mie prefecture, Abe said the G7 leaders were resolutely working towards Vladimir Putin’s participation in it.
He claimed for instance they were creating conditions towards Russia’s compliance with the obligations conducive to peace settlement in Ukraine and understandable for the world community. Abe said he would like personally to invest efforts into making Putin move in that direction.
The two-day summit of the G7 ended in Germany on Monday, with the participating leaders reaffirming their resolve in assistance to Ukraine. Тhey agreed on setting up a support group in Kiev that will help the Ukrainian authorities implement reforms and struggle with corruption, said the host of the summit, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.
She also spoke of the group’s preparedness to toughen sanctions against Russia if the situation required it.
Along with it, the G7 leaders spoke of their intention to continue dialogue with Moscow in spite of their sanction-dominated rhetoric made known their intention to maintain dialogue with Russia. "Contacts should be continued," French President Francois Hollande said. "The fact Russia wasn’t invited to the summit doesn’t mean there’s no need for dialogue with it anymore," he said.
He recalled that an expanded international format, the Group of Twenty, existed in addition to the G7.