Zelenskyj is speaking at the summit in Japan, he is looking for support not only from the G7 leaders

Update: 20.05.2023 12:56

Hiroshima – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi arrived in the Japanese city of Hiroshima today, where his series of foreign negotiations continues by participating in the summit of the G7 group of major economies. According to the Bloomberg agency, he also wants to use the weekend to appeal to the leaders of India or Brazil, i.e. countries that are trying to be neutral in Russia’s war against Ukraine. He met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi already today, and his speech before all participants of the summit is expected on Sunday.

“Japan. G7. Important meetings with partners and friends of Ukraine. Security and strengthening cooperation for our victory. Peace will be closer after today,” Zelenskyy said on Twitter shortly after the first reports of his arrival. The cameras of the Japanese NHK television caught him getting off the French plane on which he had traveled from Saudi Arabia in a brown-green hooded sweatshirt.

The Ukrainian president’s visit to Japan continues a series of foreign negotiations that took him to the summit of the League of Arab States in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on Friday. There, Zelenskyy called on leaders to support his peace plan for Ukraine, which includes, among other things, restoring its territorial integrity.

After 15 months of Russian invasion, Kiev is preparing for a counter-offensive to retake areas taken by Russian forces, and Zelenskyi will want to continue his efforts in Japan to maximize the support of the international community. On the part of the West, he received a key step already during the week, when some European countries expressed their willingness to provide Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets. US President Joe Biden, according to his adviser Jake Sullivan, assured partners on Friday in Hiroshima that the US would support the training of Ukrainian pilots on these machines and would not prevent their delivery to Ukraine.

In addition to the United States, the G7 group also includes Canada, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and France. Prime ministers and presidents of a number of other countries were also invited to the weekend summit, including Indian Prime Minister Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The possibility of dealing with these guests is, according to some media, a key point of the Ukrainian president’s agenda, since the countries of the “global south” refuse to support Ukraine militarily and, for example, India increased the import of Russian energy after the Russian invasion. The Financial Times statedthat Zelenskyi was preparing to confront the said pair after they decided not to support sanctions against Russia.

Zelenskyy met with Modi on the sidelines of the summit shortly after arriving in Hiroshima, he announced office of the Indian leader on twitter without specifying the topics of the meeting. The Ukrainian president met the Indian prime minister in person for the first time since last year’s invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. It was not clear whether there would also be a bilateral meeting with the Brazilian president.

Earlier, Zelenskyi started his program in Japan with meetings with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and with the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloniova, bilateral negotiations he also graduated with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. On Sunday, according to available information, he will first meet with the G7 leaders, after which the second block of negotiations will come, which will also include special guests and whose theme will be “peace and stability”.

Zelenskyi will also “almost certainly” meet separately with US President Biden, writes The New York Times. The newspaper evaluates Friday’s information about support for the training of Ukrainian pilots, after which Zelenskyy thanked for a “historic decision”, as a signal of a “sharp change” in Washington’s course. At the same time, according to the media, Biden is preparing to announce a new package of military aid to Kyiv worth 375 million dollars (over eight billion CZK).

In today’s statement, the G7 leaders reiterated that they will support Ukraine for as long as it takes to achieve a just and lasting peace.