The foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations plan to hold an emergency meeting in Germany this week to discuss the crisis over Ukraine amid mounting fears of a Russian invasion, sources close to the matter said Wednesday, Kyodo News reports.
The G-7 talks are being arranged to be held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), a three-day multinational forum on international security policy that is slated to start Friday, according to the sources.
Japan is considering sending Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi to the G-7 meeting that also involves Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States, the sources said.
Earlier this week, the G-7 finance ministers warned Russia of economic sanctions that would have "massive and immediate" consequences should it invade neighboring Ukraine.
Approximately 35 heads of state and government will participate in the MSC which will take place on February 18-20, TASS reports.
It is expected that the US will be represented by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the German delegation will be led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is also expected to attend the conference.
Lately, Ukraine and the West have been increasingly echoing claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" of Ukraine ever more frequently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tensions, emphasizing that Russia does not pose a threat to anyone. That said, he didn’t exclude the possibility of provocations being whipped up in order to justify such claims and warned that attempts to resolve the problem in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences.
