By Sakura Murakami and John Geddie
TOKYO (Reuters) -&nbsp;G7&nbsp;support&nbsp;for&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;in its war with Russia will&nbsp;not&nbsp;be affected by the intensifying&nbsp;Middle&nbsp;East&nbsp;conflict,&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;said on Tuesday as the group's foreign ministers prepared to hold virtual talks with Kyiv during a meeting in Tokyo.
The Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;and the United States - as well as the European Union, meet in Tokyo on Nov. 7-8 to discuss issues including Russia's war in&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;and the Israel-Gaza crisis.
"Our commitment to continue strict sanctions against Russia and strong&nbsp;support&nbsp;for&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;has&nbsp;not&nbsp;wavered at all, even as the situation in the&nbsp;Middle&nbsp;East&nbsp;intensifies,"&nbsp;Japan's foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa told a press conference.
At a meeting with Kamikawa later on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasised the group's "enduring&nbsp;support" for&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;as a key item on the agenda for the talks, but also said it was an important moment to come together on the Israel-Hamas war.
The&nbsp;G7&nbsp;is&nbsp;due&nbsp;to hold an online meeting with&nbsp;Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday.
G7&nbsp;countries recognise that Russia is settling into its war in&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;for the longer term and this requires enduring military and economic&nbsp;support&nbsp;for Kyiv, a senior U.S. official said after the bloc's foreign ministers met in September.
The group has been at the forefront of sanctions on Russia since Moscow invaded&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;in February 2022, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy making a surprise appearance at the&nbsp;G7&nbsp;leaders summit in Hiroshima in May.
In the latest move aimed at turning the economic screws on Russia, the group is weighing up proposals to impose sanctions on Russian diamonds.
Japan&nbsp;also said on Tuesday that it would take an unavoidable hit from U.S. sanctions on the Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia, in which&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;companies Mitsui &amp; Co and JOGMEC hold a combined 10% stake.
ISRAEL-GAZA RESPONSE
Finding its voice on&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;appears to have proved easier for the&nbsp;G7&nbsp;than tackling the spiralling Israel-Gaza crisis which has claimed thousands of lives and threatens to spill into a regional&nbsp;conflict.
Since the war erupted, the&nbsp;G7&nbsp;has issued just one joint statement on the&nbsp;conflict, amounting to a few sentences. Other group members have issued separate statements.
In Tokyo, the&nbsp;G7&nbsp;plans to convey the need for a pause in fighting and allowing humanitarian access to Gaza, which has been bombarded by Israel in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct 7 that killed 1,400 people, Kamikawa said.
Health officials in Gaza say more than 10,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far by the Israeli bombing.
Also on Tuesday, Kamikawa,&nbsp;Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara, and their British counterparts attended a meeting where they reiterated that the two-state solution was the only viable path to just and lasting peace in the region.
A joint statement following those talks also condemned what it described as destabilising activities in the region by Iran and called on the oil-rich nation to play a more constructive role to de-escalate tensions.
G7&nbsp;chair&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;has taken a cautious approach to the crisis, resisting pressure to fall in line with the pro-Israel stance of its closest ally, the United States, officials and analysts say.
But at the meeting with Blinken, Kamikawa said there was "solid unity" between the countries on the issue.
G7&nbsp;divisions have also been evident at the United Nations, with France voting in favour of a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in the&nbsp;conflict&nbsp;on Oct 26, the U.S. opposing it and the group's other members abstaining.
G7&nbsp;foreign ministers are preparing "some sort of statement" to be issued following the Tokyo talks, Kamikawa said declining to comment on its contents.
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(Reporting by Sakura Murakami, Tim Kelly and John Geddie; Editing by Tom Hogue and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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G7 support for Ukraine will not dim due to Middle East conflict, Japan says