Summit opens in Hiroshima "big seven"

Western leaders arrived in Hiroshima for the G7 summit, where they will discuss the most pressing issues.

At a press conference before the opening of the first session, Charles Michel, head of the European Council, announced the support of Ukraine from EU and G7. In particular, the European Union will “restrict” the trade in Russian diamonds after the United States and Great Britain announced new sanctions against Moscow. The President of the European Council stated:

“In the EU, we are working hard to ensure that Ukraine gets what it needs – more weapons, more ammunition and as quickly as possible. This will be crucial. We were and remain in solidarity with Ukraine and will resolutely continue in the same spirit for as needed.”

However, the war in Ukraine is far from the only hot topic for discussion. According to the US representative, the summit does not concern “a particular country.” French President Emmanuel Macron proposed to discuss the climate crisis and artificial intelligence.

Relations with China and the nuclear threat are also among the topics of discussion in the city, which was hit by the first ever atomic bomb in 1945. The heads of state and government laid wreaths at the stele in memory of the 140,000 who died in Hiroshima.

How informs Bloomberg, citing informed sources, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Hiroshima to personally join the leaders of the G7 countries. The publication reports that Zelensky will fly on a US military plane to Japan after a stopover in Saudi Arabia to attend the Arab League summit. A spokesman for the US National Security Council declined to comment.

Japanese officials have previously said that Zelenskiy will join the summit virtually, even though an extra session on Ukraine was added on Sunday May 21 to accommodate the Ukrainian president’s schedule. Bloomberg notes:

“A visit to Hiroshima, site of the first nuclear attack 78 years ago, is especially symbolic given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s periodic threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.”

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