The leaders of the world’s strongest democracies gathered on Friday to discuss new ways to punish Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelensky will personally join the Group of Seven summit on Sunday.
Zelensky will embark on the farthest journey from his war-torn country as leaders are set to reveal new sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, confirmed on national television that Zelensky would attend the summit.
“We were sure that our president could be wherever Ukraine needed him, in every a part of the world, to solve the issue of the steadiness of our country,” Danilov said on Friday. “Very essential matters might be decided there, so a physical presence is crucial to defend our interests.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats to Ukraine, together with North Korea’s months-long series of missile tests and China’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, have resonated with Japan’s push to make nuclear disarmament a serious a part of the summit.
![Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Hiroshima, where the leaders are to reveal the new sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AP23138338653061.jpg?w=1024)
World leaders visited a peace park on Friday dedicated to the tens of 1000’s of victims of the world’s first atomic bomb detonation in the course of the war.
Japanese leader Fumio Kishida said he invited Zelensky to the G7 summit during his March visit to Kiev.
Zelensky can also be expected to appear virtually at Friday’s meeting of G7 leaders, where they’re expected to get an update on battlefield conditions and agree to step up efforts to limit Moscow’s hostilities.
![President Joe Biden (fourth from right) and other G7 leaders pose for a photo during a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan, May 19, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AP23139120647707.jpg?w=1024)
After taking group photos near town’s iconic bombed dome, laying wreaths and symbolically planting trees, a new round of sanctions against Moscow was to be unveiled, with an emphasis on redoubling efforts to implement existing sanctions that may stifle Russia’s war effort and hold those to account. who’re behind it, said a US official.
Russia is currently essentially the most sanctioned country on this planet, but there are questions on the effectiveness of monetary penalties.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to view the announcement, said the U.S. component of the actions will lead to the blacklisting of roughly 70 Russian and third-country entities involved in Russian defense production and the imposition of sanctions on greater than 300 individuals, entities, aircraft and ships.
![French President Emmanuel Macron (left) gestures to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after laying a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Park with U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) in Hiroshima, Japan, May 19, 2023, during the G7 Summit .](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AP23139128714054-1.jpg?w=1024)
The official added that other G7 countries would take similar steps to further isolate Russia and weaken its ability to wage war in Ukraine.
Details were to be revealed in the course of the weekend rush.
The European Union has focused on closing the door to loopholes and plans to limit trade in Russian diamonds, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, told reporters.
![U.S. President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife Yuko Kishida head to the Hiroshima Peace Museum at Peace Park during the G7 Hiroshima Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 19, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AP23139104636710.jpg?w=1024)
He said the G7 would also try to convey to the leaders of non-guest countries why it’s so essential to implement the sanctions.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents Hiroshima in parliament, wants nuclear disarmament to be the important topic of debate, and has officially kicked off the summit at the Hiroshima Peace Park.
The visit of world leaders to the park dedicated to keeping memorabilia after the August 6, 1945, US B-29 drop of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima provided a striking backdrop for the beginning of the summit.
![President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden enter the Peace Memorial Park at the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 19, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AP23139116602406.jpg?w=1024)
An estimated 140,000 people died within the attack, and the rapidly dwindling variety of elderly survivors made Hiroshima synonymous with anti-nuclear peacekeeping efforts.
“Frankly, I even have great doubts that Mr. Kishida, who’s leading military buildup and searching for to revise the pacifist structure, can really speak about nuclear disarmament,” Sueichi Kido, an 83-year-old “hibakusha” or survivor of the Nagasaki blast, told the Associated Press. “But since they’re meeting in Hiroshima, I even have a bit of little bit of hope that they may have positive talks and take a small step towards nuclear disarmament.”
On Thursday evening, Kishida opened up world diplomacy by sitting down with President Joe Biden after Biden arrived at a close-by military base.
![Leaders of the Group of Seven Nations meetings walk in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 19, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AP23139128208200.jpg?w=1024)
Kishida also held talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of the three-day leadership meeting.
The Japan-US alliance is “the inspiration of peace and security within the Indo-Pacific region,” Kishida told Biden in his opening address.
Faced with threats from authoritarian China, Russia and North Korea, Japan builds up its military but additionally relies on the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan and US military power.
“We’re very happy that the cooperation has developed in leaps and bounds,” said Kishida.
Biden, who greeted U.S. and Japanese troops at nearby Iwakuni Marine Air Station before meeting Kishida, said, “When our countries stand together, we’re stronger, and I think the entire world is safer once we do.”
Because the G7 participants headed to Hiroshima, Moscow unleashed one other air strike on the Ukrainian capital.
![Leaders of the Group of Seven Nations meetings attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Atomic Bomb Victims at the Peace Memorial Park as part of the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, May 19, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AFP_33FJ3JW.jpg?w=1024)
Loud explosions swept through Kiev within the early hours of the morning, the ninth time this month as Russian airstrikes targeted town after weeks of relative silence.
“Ukraine crisis: I’m sure that is where the conversation will start,” said Matthew P. Goodman, senior vice chairman of economic affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Jake Sullivan, White House Counselor on Executions particularly.
![French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Joe Biden attend a tree-planting ceremony during a visit to the Peace Memorial Park as part of the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, May 19, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/AFP_33FJ4QC.jpg?w=1024)
The US has frozen funds from the Russian Central Bank, restricted banks’ access to SWIFT – the dominant system for global financial transactions – and imposed sanctions on 1000’s of Russian firms, government officials, oligarchs and their families.
The Group of Seven jointly imposed a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian oil and diesel fuel last yr, which the U.S. Treasury Department defended in a new progress report on Thursday, saying the cap was effectively stifling Russian oil revenues.
The Treasury Ministry cites data from the Russian Ministry of Finance, which show that the Kremlin’s oil revenues from January to March this yr amounted to were over 40% lower than last yr.
The economic impact of sanctions depends largely on the extent to which a rustic is in a position to circumvent them, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.
So for the past month, US Treasury officials have been traveling across Europe and Central Asia to pressure countries that also do business with the Kremlin to sever financial ties.
“The challenge is to make the sanctions painful for Russia, not for us,” Michel said. “It is extremely clear that every package is harder than the previous one and requires more political effort to make a call.”
G7 leaders and invited guests from several other countries are expected to discuss how to take care of China’s growing assertiveness and military development amid growing fears that it could try to take Taiwan by force, sparking a wider conflict.
China claims the autonomous island is their property, and their ships and warplanes often patrol the world.
Security in Hiroshima was tight, with 1000’s of law enforcement officials deployed throughout town.
The small group of protesters was greatly outnumbered by police who gathered Wednesday night next to the ruins of the Atomic Peace Dome monument holding signs, including one which read “No G7 Imperialist Summit!”
As a part of diplomatic duels, Chinese President Xi Jinping receives the leaders of Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for a two-day summit within the Chinese city of Xi’an.
Leaders are to discuss efforts to bolster the worldwide economy and address rising prices which can be straining families and government budgets all over the world, particularly in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The controversy over raising the debt ceiling within the US, the world’s largest economy, threatens to overshadow G7 talks.
Biden plans to rush back to Washington after the summit for debt negotiations, scrapping planned meetings in Papua New Guinea and Australia.
The British prime minister arrived in Japan earlier on Thursday and paid a visit to JS Izumo, a vessel that may carry helicopters and fighter jets able to vertical take-off and landing.
During Thursday’s meeting, Sunak and Kishida announced a lot of agreements on issues including defense; trade and investment; technology and climate change, Sunak’s office said.
The G7 includes Japan, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Italy, as well as the European Union.
Many other countries were invited to the summit in hopes of strengthening ties with non-G7 countries while supporting efforts such as isolating Russia.
Among the many guests are leaders from Australia, Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Korea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is anticipated to join via video link.