The end of the G7 summit in Hiroshima spoke of the war, as Volodymyr Zelensky took the stage for the last press conference of the deliberations. The President of Ukraine wore a black sweater with just one word written on it in thin white letters: “Ukraine”. He was composed, in a quiet way grateful for the performance and the discussions in the circle of the seven most important democracies. And he had brought a speech in which he wanted to somehow establish a connection between Hiroshima, the Japanese city that hit the world’s first atomic bomb in August 1945, and its Ukraine, where Russia’s war of aggression has been raging since February 2022.
Zelensky had previously seen the images of the devastation of yore in the Peace Park Museum. He said it reminded him of Bakhmut, the city that had previously been rumored to have been completely taken by the Russians. He had to know for himself that the comparison didn’t work because the history of the bombing of Hiroshima and the destruction of Bakhmut are so different. But you could also understand him. A president at war cannot take his mind off his battered country. Volodymyr Zelenskij said: “The war overthrew everything that lay before us.”
Not everyone was pleased with Zelensky’s surprising visit to the summit
Zelensky’s visit to the G7 summit was apparently not without controversy among the statesmen present. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is said to have found it more of an unpleasant surprise. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like Lula invited to the summit as a guest and also an opponent of sanctions against Russia, was impressed after talks with Zelensky; he noted a “clear support for dialogue and diplomacy to find a way forward”. Hosts Japan and the G7 made a clear commitment to Ukraine by inviting Zelenskiy. And Zelensky himself took not only warm words from Hiroshima.
Selensky arrived in Japan on Saturday in a French government plane. Originally it was said that Zelensky would only take part in the consultations on Ukraine digitally. However, the Japanese foreign ministry said the president had expressed an “urgent desire” to attend the summit in person. This was approved “after careful examination of the overall agenda and the timetable of the summit”. The trip offered Zelensky a double chance. On the one hand the leaders of the western world were gathered, on the other pro-Russian politicians like Lula or Modi.
In the talks with Western supporters, Zelenskiy was primarily concerned with the “fighter jet alliance” he was calling for, which would link his country with modern F-16to equip jets of US design. He had already received support from several European allies, above all from Great Britain and the Netherlands, but his most important partner hesitated: US President Joe Biden played down the desire to Ukraine for months F-16 to deliver.
The F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine are said to come from Europe
The turning point came in Hiroshima. Biden surprisingly told G-7 participants that the US would provide Ukrainian pilots F-16train aircraft. His national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, confirmed this and announced that discussions would be held with allies in the coming months on how to supply Ukraine with the fighter jets. That would probably mean that the European NATO countries in particular would make the jets available to Ukraine. According to current planning, it is not considered that the USA itself F-16 made available, reported the New York Times. Biden’s announcement certainly increased the expectation that the USA could finally make deliveries. On Sunday, Biden Zelensky also pledged additional weapons, including artillery, ammunition and armored vehicles.
Germany is probably the outsider in the fighter jet question this time. It has no combat aircraft of the type F-16. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had always expressed reservations about Ukraine’s request for western fighter jets. On Sunday, Scholz called the “fighter jet alliance” a “long-term project” in which it had not yet been finally decided “what will happen at the end of the training”. But first it sends a message to Russia. It shouldn’t think that support for Ukraine will wane “if it lasts long enough.”
Zelensky responded with great delight. US aid to the fighter jet alliance is a “historic decision,” he tweeted. “This will greatly strengthen our army in the sky.” He is looking forward to “discussing the practical implementation of this decision during the G-7 summit in Hiroshima”. For the Ukrainian it is a huge diplomatic success. Apparently, during his trip to Europe, he had managed to gain so much support for his “fighter jet alliance” that Biden had to give in under pressure – even if national security adviser Sullivan tried to dispel this impression.
Zelensky is also courting non-Western countries
Sullivan said that decisions about arms deliveries to Ukraine had been based on the necessities of the war from the outset. Now we have “reached a point where it is time to look to the future” and assess what the Ukrainian armed forces need in the long term. And these are western fighter jets.
For Zelensky, the more difficult mission remained in Hiroshima: to secure more support beyond the West. That had already been his concern during a stopover in Saudi Arabia for a meeting of the Arab League. “Japan. G 7. Important meetings with partners and friends of Ukraine,” he tweeted, “peace is getting closer every day.”
In Hiroshima, however, the concern that the Russian war against Ukraine could last for a long time prevails. In their final declaration, the G7 are therefore addressing a country in particular that is not represented in Hiroshima. It says: “We call on China to put pressure on Russia to end its military aggression and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.”
The resolution: No more naivety towards China
China was a big topic in Hiroshima, especially the question of how to become less dependent on authoritarian economic power. A common line on the subject was sought. For years, the US has been urging its partners, especially in Europe, to be less naïve when dealing with China. Chancellor Scholz had already asserted on Friday: “Nobody supports decoupling. So the fact that China is excluded from world trade is something that nobody is pursuing.”
Decoupling was a buzzword, especially during Donald Trump’s US presidency – Joe Biden’s people had made it clear even before the summit that this was not their concept. “Everyone,” Scholz claimed on the first evening of the summit, “is of the opinion that China should be able to develop well, also in terms of the economic prosperity of its citizens.” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pointed out on Saturday how many countries in Africa, for example, have had bad experiences with Chinese investments. “They took Chinese loans and ended up with a debt crisis,” she said.
In any case, global competition with China was by no means called off in Hiroshima. The new magic word is “de-risking”. In essence, it is about reducing dependencies on China through diversification, for example in the procurement of raw materials and, conversely, promoting new supplier countries. In practice, this is complicated and, according to experts, a project for decades.
The new motto: de-risking instead of de-coupling
“We recognize that economic resilience requires de-risking and diversification,” the summit statement said. Above all, they want to reduce the excessive dependence on China in important supply chains. The G-7 leaders are admonishing Beijing on a range of issues from human rights to threats against Taiwan. In view of the role played in the international community and the size of the economy, however, it is “necessary to cooperate with China,” emphasize the G7. The wording that is obviously close to Chancellor Scholz’s heart is also found: “It’s not our policy approach to harm China. We do not want to hinder China’s economic progress and development.”