HIROSHIMA: G7 leaders arrived in Hiroshima, Japan, on Thursday to weigh tighter sanctions on Russia and protections against China’s “economic coercion”, surrounded by reminders about the harrowing cost of war.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is hosting leaders from six other wealthy democracies in his hometown — a city synonymous with nuclear destruction and now peppered with peace monuments.

Leaders including US President Joe Biden will try over three days to forge a united front on Russia and China, where the allies’ interests do not always neatly align.

Biden’s delicate diplomatic offensive in Asia hit a bump even before Air Force One left US soil: a domestic budget row forced him to cancel stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia.

He arrived in Hiroshima Thursday, becoming just the second US president after Barack Obama to visit a city levelled by his country’s “Little Boy” atomic bomb.

Russia’s 15-month-old invasion of Ukraine will top the agenda when the G7 summit gets underway Friday, after a new spate of aerial attacks on Kyiv and a long winter of grinding warfare in Bakhmut and other frontline towns.