2023-05-20 02:17:23
Zelensky to Japan: Attending the G7 summit and holding a series of bilateral meetings
The Japanese Foreign Ministry announced today, Saturday, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, tomorrow, Sunday, and will hold a series of bilateral meetings with leaders from the group.
The ministry said that Zelensky will hold a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his stay.
The ministry added that Zelensky will participate in a session on peace and security alongside the leaders of the Group of Seven and countries that have been invited to attend the summit.
The Ukrainian president is scheduled to arrive in Hiroshima on Saturday and is expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings.
This comes at a time when US President Joe Biden has expressed his willingness to allow other countries to supply Ukraine with American “F-16” fighters, which are strongly demanded by Kiev, in a decision that Zelensky described as “historic”.
Zelensky said he was looking forward to “discussing the practical implementation” of the plan in Hiroshima, where he is expected to hold talks with Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Sunday.
And the White House announced, today, Saturday, that Biden is “looking forward” to meeting Zelensky in Hiroshima, confirming that the two leaders will meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
“The president is looking forward to the opportunity to meet him face-to-face,” said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, without giving details of when the talks would take place.
For his part, the head of the Ukrainian Security Council Oleksiy Danilov said, “Important issues will be decided (in Hiroshima), and therefore the presence of our president is absolutely essential to defend our interests.”
An informed source in Hiroshima confirmed to “Agence France Presse” Zelensky’s attendance at the summit held in the city, which has become a symbol of peace in the world, following it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945.
It was originally scheduled that Zelensky would address the summit via video technology, tomorrow, Sunday, on the last day of its convening, in the presence of the leaders of the eight countries invited by the Japanese presidency, including leaders of emerging countries.
A diplomatic source said, “We assume that they will meet (…) This is an opportunity to talk to as many leaders as possible,” noting that “the best spokesman for the Ukrainian cause is the Ukrainian president himself.”
Zelensky will ask the Group of Seven for new military capabilities to better confront the Russian forces before the counter-attack announced by Kiev, he will also ask for more artillery shells and advanced air defense systems, and he will most likely ask once more to obtain American F-16 fighters and combat aircraft owned by the Europeans. “In large quantities”.
And the leaders of the Group of Seven countries decided during their summit in Hiroshima in Japan, yesterday, Friday, to impose new sanctions on Russia with the aim of “depriving it of technologies, industrial equipment and services of the Group of Seven that support its war campaign” in Ukraine.
In addition to the Ukrainian file, the talks deal with the issue of China and the issue of diversifying the supply chains of the seven countries in the face of the dangers of “economic coercion” that Beijing may practice.
(AFP, Archyde.com, The New Arab)
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