2023-05-19 16:40:05
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskywill attend in person the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where the leaders of the major industrialized powers announced new sanctions against Russian “war machine”. “Very important things are going to be decided, and that is why the presence of our president is absolutely essential to defend our interests,” explained the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Oleksii Danilov. Initially, Zelenski was to intervene by videoconference at the summit, scheduled for Friday to Sunday.
Finally, he will attend in person, after passing through Saudi Arabia, where he made a stopover this Friday to participate in an Arab League summit and meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, who has close relations with both Russia and China.
In Japan, Zelenski will be able to renew your fighter jet order to better repel the Russian invasion, a demand he already made during his recent European tour.
Several European countries, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, announced this week that they will work so that Ukraine can receive F-16 aircraft and everything points to Washington will give the green light this weekend to this international coalition to send fighter jets. Ukraine has received ex-Soviet fighters from Poland and Slovakia but is pushing for more advanced Western fighters that it says are “four to five times” more effective than the fighters in its fleet.
The Netherlands has 24 F-16s that will be scrapped next year to modernize their fleet with F-35s of new generation. Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has previously stated that his country has “no taboos” about what equipment it could give to Ukraine. Denmark also has 30 F-16s in service.
In Hiroshima, the city that was the victim of the first atomic bombing in history, in 1945, the leaders of the seven main industrialized powers announced a tightening of their sanctions against Russia, and they will also adopt a common position with regard to China.
In a joint statement released after a meeting dedicated to Ukraine, the group consisting of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada announced measures to “deprive Russia of G7 technology, industrial equipment and services who maintain their war machine” on Ukrainian soil.
The package includes restrictions on exports of goods “critical to Russia on the battlefield”, as well as measures against entities accused of taking material to the front for the benefit of Moscow.
Hours earlier, the United States announced that it would restrict Russia’s access to “products necessary for its combat capabilities” by banning exports to 70 Russian and other entities.
– Sanctions on Russian diamonds –
UK and EU announced by their side restrictions against the Russian diamond industrywhose trade is valued at 4,000 to 5,000 million dollars annually and is an important source of income for the Kremlin.
In its statement, the G7 also pledged to “restrict the trade and use of diamonds mined, treated or produced in Russia”, making use of tracking technologies.
The United Arab Emirates, India and Belgium, a member of the EU, are among the main importers of Russian diamonds.
The G7 leaders will be able to make their arguments for the move directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country has close military relations with Russia and has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.
India, along with Brazil and Indonesia, is one of the eight non-member countries of the forum that were invited to Hiroshima.
The Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, held a first bilateral meeting in the Japanese city with the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
“We talked about the expansion of Brazil-Australia relations, the Women’s Soccer World Cup [previsto en Australia y Nueva Zelanda en julio y agosto]and I received an invitation to visit Australia,” Lula said on his Twitter account.
– Tribute to the victims of Hiroshima –
Beyond Russia and Ukraine, the agenda will be dominated by China and the issue of diversifying the supply chains of the G7 countries, to guard against the risk of “economic duress” from Beijing.
The head of the German government, Olaf Scholz, called for thinking about supply chains in a way that limits “the risks due to dependence on certain countries”although France qualified that this will be “a G7 of cooperation and demand with respect to China.”
Before starting the summit, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a native of Hiroshima, received the other six G7 leaders one by one at the Peace Memorial Park.
Together they paid tribute to those around 140,000 victims of the atomic bomb American on August 6, 1945.
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