KARUIZAWA, JAPAN     -      For G7 diplomats meet­ing in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa, unity was the name of the game on Mon­day, with ministers lining up to insist there is no daylight between them on China pol­icy. The two days of talks are taking place under the long shadow cast by remarks from French President Emmanu­el Macron, who last week sug­gested Europe should avoid “crises that aren’t ours”. From the opening remarks of Mon­day’s first session, the desire to emphasise common ground was on clear display, with Ja­pan’s Foreign Minister Yoshi­masa Hayashi telling his coun­terparts “the unity of the G7 is extremely important”. Mon­day’s first session, and the ministers’ working dinner the night before, focused on Chi­na and regional challenges, with Hayashi urging counter­parts to “demonstrate to the world the G7’s strong deter­mination” to defend the “in­ternational order based on the rule of law”. But comments during bilateral talks on Mon­day showed the direction of travel, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying discussions so far had “only reinforced the convergence of views that we have”, as he met with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna. “We’re united, we’re giving clearly the same signal to the rest of the world that any situation re­quires respect of internation­al law as a precondition to the rest,” Colonna added.