Cook Islands and the wider Pacific could benefit from the talks on Indo- Pacific, economic resilience and economic security, gender, food, health, climate, development and digitalisation at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan this weekend.

Prime Minister Mark Brown will attend the meeting after he accepted an invitation from the current President of the G7, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida.

During a meeting with journalists from 10 nations – including the Cook Islands – invited to report on the summit, Japan outlined the G7 summit agenda and reaffirmed its nuclear disarmament message.

The journalists were handed Japan’s Foreign Policy on International Nuclear Cooperation and numerous statements from the Foreign Ministers’ Office and Non-Proliferation Directors Group at a briefing in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Director of the Economic Policy Division Takashi Ariyoshi and Secretariat for the G7 Hiroshima summit Akiko Kawabe gave clear indications about two perspectives and priority agendas under Japanese G7 Presidency.

Upholding international order based on the rule of law through firmly rejecting any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force or the threat to use nuclear weapons, “as Russia has done”, or the use of nuclear weapons.

The second is strengthening outreach to the global south, by demonstrating G7’s contributions to the issues of their concern.

Ukraine, however, is the top of the priority list of agendas.

Japan said it would continue to strongly promote sanctions against Russia.

The G7 would reaffirm and strengthen cooperation on the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific”.

The meeting heard nuclear disarmament was the initiative of the Japan Prime Minister and the G7 would “deepen” discussions to send a strong message that it would advance realistic and practical efforts to “take us from the reality of the harsh security environment to the ideal of a world without nuclear weapons”.

On top to that there was work to be done on resilient supply chains, non-market policies and practices and economic coercion.

Japan has organised Outreach Sessions that will be held within the margins of the G7 Summit. Leaders from non-G7 nations have been invited to attend as Outreach Partners, these leaders are from Australia, Brazil, Comoros, Cook Islands, Indonesia, India, Republic of Korea, and Vietnam.

Brown has been invited to speak at two Outreach sessions: (1) Working Together to Address Multiple Crises: Toward a Peaceful, Stable and Prosperous World (including Food, Health, Development and Gender), and (2) Common Endeavour for a Sustainable Planet (including Climate, Energy and Environment).

• Al Williams is in Hiroshima, Japan to cover the G7 Summit. His trip was made possible by the Embassy of Japan in New Zealand.