Japanese general election, Kishida maintained the premiership although the LDP lost 25 seats. He formed the Second Kishida Cabinet by replacing Toshimitsu Motegi with Yoshimasa Hayashi as the Foreign Minister; Motegi became the party's Secretary-General. Foreign relations On 24 February 2022, following the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kishida joined other leaders of the G-7 nations in imposing economic sanctions on Russia. Kishida's proposed sanctions are much harsher than the largely symbolic sanctions imposed by the government of Shinzo Abe on Russia following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Liberal Democratic Party leaders fear that a lackluster response by Japan to the Ukrainian crisis will result in a lack of support from Japan's European allies in the event of potential Chinese aggression against Taiwan. In November 2022, Kishida instructed his government to increase military spending to 2 percent of Japan's GDP, up from 1 percent previously, by 2027. Following this resolution by the cabinet, Kishida began a 5 nation tour of all members of the Group of Seven in January 2023. Kishida first met with President Emanuel Macron of France on 9 January 2023. The following day, he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and agreed on a ‘strategic partnership.’ On 11 January 2023, Kishida met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, where the two signed a historic joint defence pact. The following day, Kishida met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa to discuss trade and other issues. On 13 January, Kishida visited President Joe Biden of the United States in Washington, D.C.; the day earlier Japan's Foreign Minister and Defense Minister met with their American counterparts, where they affirmed the Japan-American alliance remained unchanged. On January 14, 2023, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called Kishida to commit "seppuku" after he and Joe Biden warned Russia against using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine. Assassination of Shinzo Abe and cabinet reshuffle After the assassination of Shinzo Abe on 8 July 2022, Kishida condemned the assassination, but refused to suspend political campaigning so as to demonstrate that democracy would not be impeded by violence. He later blamed insufficient police protection for allowing the murder to occur. Because of media reports on the ties between the LDP and the Unification Church, a Korean cult accused of scamming Japanese followers (including the suspect's mother) out of much of their wealth, Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet on 10 August