Hiroshima (Japan) (EFE).- The leaders of the G7 announced this Friday new sanctions to make Russia pay for the war in Ukraine and reaffirmed their commitment to help Kiev “for as long as necessary.”
The Group of Seven unveiled that position in a joint statement at the end of a closed-door meeting on Ukraine, which was held on the first day of the leaders’ summit in Hiroshima.
Despite the fact that the G7 wants to show unity, it is expected that only three of the group’s countries (the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom) will impose new sanctions against Russia, while another three (Italy, Germany, France) will do so soon in a new package agreed within the European Union. Japan is not expected to announce sanctions for now.
The first session of the G7 summit starts in Hiroshima and will be attended by Zelenski
The first session of the G7 summit began in the city of Hiroshima (western Japan) with a focus on the world economy and after the leaders visited the Peace Museum and Park and paid their respects to the victims of the atomic bombing .
The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), Oleksii Danilov, confirmed that the country’s president, Volodimir Zelensky, will travel to Japan to attend the summit.
That first session of the G7 consists of a working lunch between the leaders of Japan, the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy, at the luxurious Grand Prince Hotel, located on the island of Ujina, five kilometers from the center of Hiroshima. , and without access to the press.
The Prime Minister of India, the Hindu nationalist Narendras Modi, left for Hiroshima on Friday, in the first visit since 1974 by an Indian head of government to the Japanese city attacked with a nuclear weapon in 1945.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, for his part, affirmed that he trusts that the G7 will agree on new restrictions on the Russian diamond trade, with a view to cutting off another way of financing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has said it will ban diamond exports from Russia and will also ban imports of copper, aluminum and nickel from Russia, as part of a new sanctions package announced in the G7 framework.
Hiroshima, site of the G7 summit
Hiroshima, the first city to be bombed with a nuclear weapon on August 6, 1945, is the site of the 49th meeting of the Group of Seven, which is held between May 19 and 21 and where it is intended to command a strong message for peace and against nuclear weapons in the context of the war in Ukraine.
The G7 leaders also made a historic visit to the Hiroshima Peace Museum and Park on Friday, in a gesture aimed at sending a message against the use of atomic weapons and against Moscow’s nuclear rhetoric.
After the visit to the museum, which according to local media would have lasted about 30 minutes and where the leaders signed the visitors’ book and met with a “hibakusha” -survivor-, the leaders presented some white flower arrangements in respect to the victims.
Biden brings the nuclear briefcase to Hiroshima
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has brought to the city of Hiroshima, the first in history to suffer an atomic bombing, the briefcase with which he can launch a nuclear attack from anywhere in the world.
The briefcase – known as the “nuclear balloon” – weighs about 20 kilos, is made of black leather and always accompanies the President of the United States on his trips inside and outside the country.
