European Council President Charles Michel holds a press conference in Hiroshima on May 19, 2023.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will personally attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima in Japan, where leaders of major industrial powers announced new sanctions against Russia’s “war machine”.
“Very important things are being decided, and that is why the presence of our president is absolutely necessary to protect our interests,” said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council.
Initially, Zelensky was to intervene by videoconferencing at the summit scheduled for Friday to Sunday.
He would now have the opportunity to repeat his request for fighter jets to better repel a Russian invasion of Japan, a demand he had already made during his recent European tour.
Several European countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands announced this week that they would work so that Ukraine can receive the F-16 aircraft, although the final delivery must be authorized by Washington.
In Hiroshima, the city that was the first atomic bombing in history, in 1945, the leaders of the seven major industrial powers announced that they would tighten their sanctions against Russia, and that they would also adopt a common position regarding China.
In a joint statement issued after a meeting dedicated to Ukraine, the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada announced measures to “deny Russia from G7 technology, industrial equipment and services that outline its machinery. War” in Ukraine.
The package includes a ban on the export of goods “critical to Russia on the battlefield” as well as a crackdown on entities accused of surfacing the material for Moscow’s benefit.
A senior White House official said the United States had set the tone hours earlier by announcing new sanctions against Moscow to restrict its access to “products essential to its combat capabilities”.
Specifically, Washington will impose sanctions on US exports to 70 entities in Russia and other countries.
– The embargo on Russian diamonds –
Britain and the European Union have announced sanctions on the Russian diamond industry, which is worth $4-5 billion a year and a major source of revenue for the Kremlin.
In its statement, the G7 also pledged to “prohibit the trade and use of diamonds mined, treated or produced in Russia” using tracking technologies.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “In the face of the threat from Russia, the G7 stands united and stands firm in its support of Ukraine.”
The United Arab Emirates, India and Belgium, a member of the European Union, are among the main importers of Russian diamonds.
G7 leaders will be able to make their pleas for the move directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country has close military ties with Russia and has refused to condemn Ukraine’s invasion.
India, along with Brazil and Indonesia, is one of eight non-member countries of the forum that were invited to Hiroshima.
A way for the G7 to get closer to countries reluctant to condemn Moscow, and in which China makes large investments.
– Tribute to the victims of Hiroshima –
Beyond Russia and Ukraine, the agenda will be dominated by China and the issue of diversifying G7 countries’ supply chains to defend against the risk of “economic pressure” from Beijing.
German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday, without explicitly mentioning China, that “we want to organize supply, trade and investment relations globally, so that dependence on a few countries does not increase the risk.”
France qualified that it would not be a “G7 of confrontation”, but a “G7 of cooperation and demand with respect to China”.
Before starting the summit on Friday afternoon, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose family and political roots are in Hiroshima, received the other six G7 leaders one by one at the Peace Memorial Park.
Together they paid tribute to the approximately 140,000 victims of the American atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.
