Japan plans to issue a chair's statement strongly condemning terrorism when it hosts the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in Hiroshima next month, government sources said Thursday.
In the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, Japan plans to put terrorism atop the agenda at the meeting that brings together the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States as well as the EU foreign policy chief.
Japan seeks to offer support to its G-7 peers in combating terrorism, the sources said.
"Following the terror attacks in Brussels, counterterrorism will be the top agenda item at the foreign ministers' meeting," a Japanese source said.
A source at the Foreign Ministry said that the planned chair's statement will "show a resolute stance and condemn (terrorism) with the strongest words."
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks in the Belgian capital on Tuesday that left more than 30 people dead and around 260 injured, including two Japanese.
The planned chair's statement will touch on both Brussels and the November Paris attacks, calling for international coordination in preventing further incidents, the sources said.
The statement will also express concern about North Korea's nuclear and missile development, the issue of past abductions of Japanese nationals by Pyongyang as well as Russia's annexation of the Crimean region of Ukraine in 2014, they said.