Late last month, the Group of Seven (G7) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Karuizawa, Nagano, in Japan, devoted a session lasting about 75 minutes to Africa.

The G7 is a grouping of the seven major democratic economies – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – as well as the European Union. The Foreign Ministers’ meeting is an essential preliminary to the 2023 G7 Summit, to be held in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19 to May 21.

The Africa session of the meeting was hosted by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. He affirmed that the G7 had to strengthen its relationship with Africa and that the G7 members should establish themselves as dependable partners to African countries. They should not ask African States to “choose their sides”.

He cited Japan’s TICAD initiative as an example of how his country sought to engage with Africa. (TICAD stands for Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which Japan launched in 1993; there have so far been eight TICADs, with TICAD9 scheduled for 2025.) Japan would continue to support Africa, he assured, and this support would consider issues such as rising prices for both food and energy.

In the session, the G7 Foreign Ministers also discussed Africa’s importance in the current global situation. They agreed that it was necessary to address issues including opaque and unfair development finance, and the spread of disinformation. They also discussed issues within certain African regions and countries, including the current crisis in Sudan, and the situations in the Great Lakes region, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel. They agreed that it was important for their countries and the EU to jointly work to help African efforts to achieve peace and stability on the continent.

“Minister Hayashi welcomed the G7 members’ strengthened engagement with Africa, and explained that Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida is expected to visit Africa shortly,” stated the G7 communiqué. “Minister Hayashi also stated that Japan would like to continue to work together to strengthen [the] relationship between the G7 and Africa.”