By Sabine Siebold and Sarah Marsh
MUENSTER, Germany (Reuters) -Group of Seven foreign ministers gathered on Thursday to weigh how to support Ukraine through the winter in the face of Russian attacks on its power grid as well as deal with China's growing assertiveness and Iran's crackdown on protests.
The two-day meeting in Germany comes amid concerns over the consistency of Western support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion, amid leadership changes across Europe and a possible U.S. Republican victory in next week's midterm elections.
The top diplomats of the G7 rich democracies will join sessions in the western German city of Muenster focusing on Ukraine, China and the Indo-Pacific as well as Iran and Africa, among others.
"G7 partners will now together kick off winter aid for Ukraine," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at the opening of the event. "We will not allow lots of people - the elderly, children, teenagers, families - to die from hunger or cold over the upcoming winter months due to the brutal tactics of the Russian president."
Baerbock said that more than 30%, and presumably 40%, of Ukraine's electricity grid had been destroyed.
"This does not only mean that there is no light in schools, in hospitals, but also that water plants running on electric power cannot pump water," she said, adding Germany had sent more than 100 generators to Ukraine to stabilise the grid.
"We will also supply heaters, pumps, living and sanitary portacabins, beds, blankets and tents," Baerbock said, noting other countries had already pledged to supply help. The joint winter aid will be coordinated by G7 partners, she noted.
ASIA FOCUS
The gathering will also allow the G7 to discuss developments in China and how to guarantee security in the Indo-Pacific after Chinese President Xi Jinping consolidated his grip on power at last month's Communist Party Congress.
Xi said in a speech at the opening of the congress that China would never renounce the use of force to ensure unification with the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which it claims as sovereign territory.
"With regard to China, we will discuss how to prevent repeating past mistakes that we made in our Russia policy," Baerbock said, adding that a global diversification of cooperation was needed.
Germany's dependency on Russian gas supplies gave rise to an energy crisis when Moscow reduced flows to Europe's largest economy in reaction to Western sanctions imposed over its invasion, stirring calls for Europe to rethink its reliance on trade with Beijing.
Japan and Germany have agreed to work towards a military logistics pact, a Japanese government official said on Thursday after a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 meeting.
G7 ministers are also likely to address German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's recent contentious decisions to allow Chinese shipping company Cosco to invest in a terminal in Hamburg port, and to pay a visit to Beijing on Friday.
Critics have accused Scholz of continuing to prioritise German economic interests over broader security concerns in the face of an increasingly assertive authoritarian state, as they say his predecessor, Angela Merkel, did with Russia.
The United States had “strongly suggested” that China have no controlling interest in the Hamburg port terminal, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday.
Germany did in the end decide to allow Cosco just a 24.9% stake in the terminal, down from an original bid for a 35% stake. China's foreign ministry said on Thursday the U.S. had "no right" to interfere in Chinese cooperation with Germany.
Germany invited Ghana, Kenya and the African Union to join the G7 meeting for discussions on climate change, infrastructure, democracy and addressing conflict and humanitarian crises, the British foreign ministry said.
The G7 session was being hosted by Germany as holder of the group's rotating presidency. The city of Muenster is hosting its first major diplomatic gathering since the signing of the 1648 treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe.