G7 Pledge To Support Kyiv "For As Long As It Takes"

According to the France-Presse (AFP) news agency, in the statement, the G7 reaffirms "collective efforts to disarm and drain funding from the Russian military-industrial complex."

"We are united to support Ukraine's fight for freedom and reconstruction for as long as necessary", say the heads of State and Government, who received the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Thursday and promised him 50 billion of dollars (around 46 billion euros) coming from frozen Russian assets.

The agreement for the loan, to be financed with interest generated by the Russian central bank's assets frozen in the European Union (EU) and which will reach Kyiv before the end of this year, was approved on Thursday in Apulia, in the southeastern Bari region. from Italy.

The agreement was reached by negotiators from the bloc's countries -- known as 'sherpas' -- and now has to be formally approved by each of the leaders, according to a source linked to the G7, who added that the agreement is not expected to be blocked by any of the members.

The meeting of the G7, an organization that includes the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and Italy, was also attended by Pope Francis and heads of state or government from Brazil, Algeria, India, Kenya, Tunisia and Turkey and also Zelensky.

Today, and according to the draft final declaration of the meeting, the G7 also called on China to stop supplying weapons components to Russia.

"We call on China to stop transferring [...] weapons components and equipment that supply the Russian defense sector", the draft declaration states.

Thursday, Zelensky indicated that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, assured him that Beijing will not sell weapons to Russia, a recognized Chinese ally.

"I had a telephone conversation with the leader of China, who told me that he would not sell weapons to Russia. We will see. He gave me his word", said Zelensky, on the sidelines of the G7 summit, taking place in Italy.

The draft final declaration of the G7 summit does not include any direct reference to the right to abortion, following opposition from the group's Italian presidency, according to the document consulted today by AFP.

The United States, France and the European Union (EU), in particular, wanted to maintain the wording of the G7 Hiroshima declaration of 2023, which guaranteed "access to safe and legal abortion and post-abortion care".

However, they abandoned this proposal due to the lack of agreement with the head of the Italian government, the ultra-conservative Giorgia Meloni, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G7.