G7 leaders in Japan preparing for arrival of Zelenskyy

Leaders of the world’s top democratic industrial nations cleared the decks for the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sunday.

Issuing the communiqué, usually completed on the final day of the annual G7 summit, is expected to be bumped up to Saturday, a senior Canadian official said at the start of the second day of the three-day meeting in Hiroshima, Japan.

“It changes a little how the peak plays out, doesn’t it?” said a senior official, who had knowledge of the file but was not authorized to speak publicly.

Zelenskyy plans to join the summit on Sunday where he will meet with all the leaders and update them on the progress of the fight against Russia.

Zelenskyy will also make a case to the observer state

However, it is among the leaders of the non-aligned countries – who are invited to the annual meeting as observers – where the Ukrainian president can make the most progress.

“I think the global south has voted generally with the G7, but they did not participate in the sanctions,” said the official, referring to the votes in the United Nations condemning Moscow’s full invasion of Ukraine last year.

“He has not participated in the punishment with any kind of throat. I think that if Zelenskyy was here in person and maybe made the case directly to the bilateral leaders, he could insist that security is inseparable.”

Indian media reports on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Zelenskyy will meet on the sidelines of the meeting in Japan, the first face-to-face meeting since Russian forces launched a full-scale offensive on February 24, 2022.

The two leaders have spoken twice over the phone.

“I think this is an opportunity for Zelenskyy, at this point, to make his case, which is more difficult to do on a Zoom call,” the Canadian official said.

Advanced fighter aircraft

The G7 leaders had talks about a proposal to train and supply advanced fighter jets in Ukraine, the official added.

US President Joe Biden has told his allies they will support joint training efforts involving allied F-16s. Ukraine has denied for months it needs advanced fighters to retake territory it lost from Russia early in the war.

Separately, the topic of foreign interference was raised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a working dinner with other leaders on Friday night.

WATCH | G7 leaders’ meeting focuses on Russia, nuclear disarmament:

“The prime minister raised it … quite significantly, at the foreign policy dinner,” said the official, who suggested the final communique would contain, at Canada’s insistence, some language related to foreign interference by countries such as China.

Not only interference in democratic institutions, the official said, but also economic problems such as theft of intellectual property.

The G7, made up of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, has been increasingly focused, US officials said, on managing what it sees as considerable security risks with China while maintaining critical trade ties with the country.

The G7 leaders plan to outline measures to protect sensitive technology, including steps to invest out, in a communique, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a briefing in Hiroshima on Saturday.

Members of the group are looking to “de-risk, not decouple” China, he said.

The leaders will outline common tools to address economic pressures, including measures to build more resilient supply chains and efforts to protect sensitive technologies through export controls and outbound investment measures, Sullivan said.