By William James and Alexander Ratz
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Democracies of the world’s richest countries tried on Saturday to present a united front against Russian aggression against Ukraine, as Britain hosted a meeting of foreign ministers in the city of Liverpool , North of England.
The G7 meeting, attended in person by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts from France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada, comes amid international concern over the possibility of Russia invading Ukraine. Russia denies planning any attacks.
Before the formal discussions, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss met with Blinken on Friday night, where they expressed deep concern about the accumulation of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, according to the Foreign Ministry. Briton in a statement.
Any incursion by Russia “would be a strategic mistake with serious consequences,” the Foreign Ministry added.
“We have to unite strongly to confront the aggressors …,” Truss told the foreign ministers at the start of the meeting.
Ukraine is at the center of a crisis in East-West relations, as it accuses Russia of concentrating tens of thousands of troops in preparation for a possible large-scale military offensive.
Russia accuses Ukraine and the United States of destabilizing behavior, and has said it needs security guarantees for its own protection.
The ministers arrived at the Museum of Liverpool, before convening the first formal session of the meeting, in which geopolitical issues, such as the nuclear talks with Iran, will be discussed.
“This weekend’s G7 meeting is a show of unity among the major like-minded economies, that we are going to be absolutely strong in our stance against aggression vis-à-vis Ukraine,” Truss told reporters before the talks.
Britain, as the current G7 president, is asking its members to be more vocal in their defense of what it calls “the free world.”
Earlier this week, Truss said that the “age of introspection” for the West had ended and that it was necessary to wake up to the dangers of rival ideologies. As examples, he highlighted the economic risks of Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and the broader security threat posed by Chinese technology.
The G7 meeting is also expected to lead to a joint call for Iran to moderate its nuclear program and seize the opportunity of the ongoing talks in Vienna to reactivate a multilateral agreement on its nuclear development.
(Reporting by William James, Humeyra Pamuk and Alexander Ratz; edited by Andrew Heavens and Ros Russell, edited in Spanish by Gabriela Donoso)
