G7 Foreign Ministers Summit to focus on global peace, stability

The G7 Foreign Ministers Summit opened Tuesday in Canada with "global peace and stability" at the top of the agenda, said Canada's representative.

Anita Anand also said there was general agreement on the urgent need to quell the violence in Sudan and Haiti and push the peace plan for Israel and Palestine with both living "side by side" in peace.

Peace between the two sides does not include "the displacement of the Palestinian people," she said.

The two-day summit is taking place in the Niagara Falls area and brings together the foreign ministers of the world's foremost economies-Canada, the US, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Japan. The European Union also has a delegate at the summit.

Anand also said that the countries that touch on the Arctic agreed that now is the time to place a collective "footprint" in the area.

The ministers will have a working dinner Tuesday, and there were a few issues at the top of the agenda.

"We will have a constructive exchange on critical priorities, including advancing long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, supporting security and building prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, and responding to urgent crises in Haiti and Sudan," Anand said.