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Leaders of the world’s major industrial democracies are preparing to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday.

Release of the communiqué, usually on the last day of the annual G7 summit, is expected to be postponed until Saturday, a senior Canadian official said at the start of the second day of the three-day meeting in Hiroshima, Japan.

“It changes the way the top launches a bit, doesn’t it?” said the senior official, who was aware of the case but was not authorized to speak publicly.

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

Zelenskyy will also present his case to observer countries

However, it is among the leaders of non-aligned nations – who have been invited to the annual meeting as observers – that the Ukrainian president is most likely to make progress.

“I think the countries of the South overwhelmingly voted for the G7, but they didn’t participate in the sanctions,” the official said, referring to a vote at the United Nations that condemned the full-blown invasion of the country. Ukraine by Moscow last year.

“They did not participate in any harsh sentencing. I think with Zelenskyy here personally and perhaps able to present his case directly to leaders on a bilateral basis, he can emphasize that security is indivisible.”

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

The two leaders spoke twice on the phone.

“I think this is an opportunity for Zelenskyy, personally this time, to present his case, which is harder to do via a Zoom call,” the Canadian official said.

advanced fighter

G7 leaders discussed a proposal to train and supply Ukraine with advanced fighter jets, the official added.

US President Joe Biden told his allies he would support a joint training effort involving allied F-16s. Ukraine has argued for months that it needs sophisticated fighters to reclaim territory lost to Russia at the start of the war.

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

“The prime minister brought it up… quite significantly, at a foreign policy dinner,” said the official, who suggested the final statement would, at Canada’s request, contain terms related to the foreign interference from countries like China.

It’s not just about interference in democratic institutions, the official said, but also economic issues such as intellectual property theft.

The G7, which includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, is increasingly focused, according to US officials, on managing what ‘they consider significant security risks with China while maintaining critical trade ties with the country. .

G7 leaders plan to outline measures to protect sensitive technology, including overseas investment measures, in their communiqués, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday during a briefing. briefing in Hiroshima.

Members of the group want to “eliminate risks, not secede” from China, he said.

Leaders will outline a set of tools to fight economic coercion, including measures to build more resilient supply chains and efforts to protect sensitive technologies through export controls and safeguards. overseas investment, Sullivan said.