The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries affirmed on Saturday their commitment to support Ukraine in its war against Russia, before the first anniversary of the war.

The ministry said - in a statement - that senior diplomats, during a meeting in Munich, southern Germany, called on other countries to stop supporting Russia and pledged to intensify their economic sanctions against Moscow.
 
Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons in war against the Eastern European country, the G7 ministers said doing so would have serious consequences, adding that Russia's rhetoric was unacceptable.
 
The meeting, held on the sidelines of an international security conference in the southern German city of Munich, is the first in-person foreign ministerial talks chaired by Japan since the Asian country took over the G7 rotating presidency this year.
 
Ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as the European Union, condemned Russia's continued attacks on Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure and agreed to hold Moscow accountable under international law.
 
The ministry said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also joined part of the meeting at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi.
 
Since the beginning of Russia's military operation in Ukraine on February 24 last year, G7 members, along with other like-minded countries, have imposed a range of economic sanctions on Russia, such as freezing assets owned by President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Central Bank among others.
 
The Group of Seven also discussed North Korea's missile and nuclear programs as well as geopolitical issues posed by Beijing's increasingly assertive military activities in the Indo-Pacific region.
 
The Japanese foreign minister said after the meeting that the G7 ministers strongly condemned Pyongyang's latest ballistic missile test, which fell in Japan's exclusive economic zone about 30 minutes before the start of the meeting.
Source: Middle East News Agency