Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida met in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 21, 2023. During the joint briefing held in Kyiv, Zelenskyy stated his intention to attend the upcoming Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Japan via an online link. He was invited by Kishida, who recently visited him during a rare, unannounced trip to Ukraine.
The G-7 summit is scheduled to take place in May and will be hosted in Kishida’s hometown of Hiroshima. Kishida emphasized that the summit should showcase a strong commitment to maintaining international order and the rule of law, with particular emphasis on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Despite the outpouring of public support in Japan following the Russian invasion, Kishida had been the only leader of the G-7 group yet to visit Ukraine prior to this visit. Zelenskyy praised his Japanese counterpart as “a truly powerful defender of the international order and a longtime friend of Ukraine.” The trip was kept secret until the last minute for security reasons.