US Secretary Blinken arrives in Japan ahead of G7 meeting

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Japan for a meeting of G7 foreign ministers expected to be dominated by the Israel-Hamas war. He arrived for the two days of discussions in Tokyo following a tour of the Middle East. Calls have been mounting for a ceasefire, including from UN agencies and several countries.
A key ally of Israel, the United States has not backed these calls, insisting that Israel has the right to respond though Washington has called for pauses in the fighting. In Turkey on Monday, Blinken said Washington was working to expand aid for trapped civilians. The G7 ministers were also set to discuss the relation with China.