Politics

Leaders of G7 invited countries visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima, Japan, May 21 (EFE).- The leaders of the countries invited to the ongoing G7 summit paid a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Sunday.

After a guided tour of the park and museum, the leaders of Australia, Brazil, Comoros, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Cook Islands, Vietnam and international organizations moved to the cenotaph, which has the names of all the people killed due to the atomic bombing of the city almost seven decades ago.

Along the way, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, dressed in a gray suit, chatted with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and then exchanged a few words with the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the first Indian leader to visit Hiroshima since the country conducted its first successful nuclear test in 1974, wore a white kurta and a beige Jodhpuri jacket.

At the cenotaph, a group of schoolchildren gave each dignitary a bouquet of white flowers, which they laid at the monument in tribute to the victims.

Afterwards, Hiroshima’s mayor Kazumi Matsui gave the leaders a brief explanation of the elements and meaning of the cenotaph, which contains the names of the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives as a result of the nuclear bombing on Aug. 6, 1945 and in the following years.

The leaders of the Group of Seven had also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Park on Friday, ahead of the formal start of the three-day 49th summit of the G7.

After accompanying the leaders, Prime Minister Kishida was scheduled to return to the Grand Prince Hotel, the summit’s venue, to proceed with the final G7 sessions, focused specifically on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Hiroshima altered the issues initially planned for the final day of the summit, in which a more general approach to international conflicts was expected.

The organizers were preparing early in the day for a possible visit by Zelenskyy to the Peace Park on the last day of the summit. EFE

mra/pd

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