Japan will invite finance ministers from South Korea and some emerging economies, including India and Brazil, to the Group of Seven ministerial meeting it will host next month in Niigata, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said Friday.
The invitation to attend the G-7 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from May 11 to 13 will also be extended to Comoros -- the African Union chair this year -- Indonesia and Singapore.
It is unusual for the seven leading industrialized nations to invite non-G-7 members to a finance session.
The G-7 -- which groups Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union -- plans to hold discussions with the invited ministers on May 12.
"We will hold frank discussions on how to address challenges faced by emerging and developing countries and deepen international cooperation," Suzuki said at a press conference.
