G7 backs Ukraine’s territorial integrity |

At Malbaie, Canada:

Foreign ministers from the G7 nations overcame their differences on Friday to back Ukraine’s territorial integrity and warned Russia to follow Kyiv in accepting a ceasefire or face possible further sanctions, according to their joint communique.

G7 officials had feared they would not be able to agree on an all-encompassing document touching on geopolitical issues from across the world, divisions that they said could have played into the hands of both Russia and China.

“When it comes to different issues, Ukraine and the Middle East, we’ve had sessions talking about these different issues, subjects, and the goal was to keep strong G7 unity,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters.

The Group of Seven ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, along with the European Union, convened in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills, for meetings on Thursday and Friday that in the past have been broadly consensual.