Follow Ari on Twitter | Send tips and insights to ahawkins@politico.com After three days of talks in Japan, the leaders of the Group of Seven nations pledged more support and more weapons shipments for Ukraine. It’s less clear how much traction they're getting in rallying a larger slice of the globe to the cause. Beyond just seven: On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the G-7 as an opportunity to garner help for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joined the confab on Saturday, from “India, Brazil, Indonesia and several other countries from the south, who have sometimes not exchanged as much with Ukraine." Zelenskyy, who was in Europe and the Middle East before coming to Hiroshima, sounded confident that he’s getting the global network of support he needs. “From Japan to the Arab countries, from Europe to Latin America, we find support for our formula. And we continue this work,” Zelenskyy tweeted from Hiroshima on Sunday. Hard-to-win friends: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Zelesnskyy over the weekend and assured the Ukrainian leader he would do “everything we can” to resolve the conflict. But Modi has thus far abstained from a U.N. vote condemning Moscow’s invasion. And India — along with China, Singapore, the UAE and Turkey — has ramped up purchases of Russian oil since the start of the war, blunting the impact of Western sanctions. Zelesnskyy also didn’t meet with Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, though Kyiv said that was likely the result of a scheduling error, per Reuters. As the third largest economy in the Americas, Brazil is a key regional power throughout the Global South. “Not meeting Lula was a diplomatic setback for Zelenskyy,” Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center, told Global Insider. “Still, India, with its global clout and special friendship with Russia, is arguably the more impactful developing world player to be cultivating,” Kugelman said, adding that the meeting with Modi marked a “small victory.” THE WEEK AHEAD Monday: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will discuss national security and climate change with regional leaders in Papua New Guinea. He is attending in place of President Joe Biden, who scrapped his visit over the debt limit stalemate in Congress. Tuesday: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will lead a business delegation in China from May 23 to 24 as Moscow becomes increasingly reliant on Beijing for economic support. Thursday: The first of a two-day APEC trade ministers meeting in Detroit. China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is expected to meet U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo this week, per Reuters. Qatar and Bahrain resume flights between the countries, more than a month after both sides vowed to restore diplomatic ties. Leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan are scheduled to meet for Russian-mediated talks amid armed clashes over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. Sunday: Spaniards take to the polls for regional elections, which will test the electorate's mood ahead of general elections scheduled between November and December. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces challenger Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu in a runoff election, after neither candidate was able to secure 50 percent of ballots in the first round. Also at the summit — mixed messages on China On Saturday, Biden went sharp on China. The White House put out a joint statement with the Quad — a strategic security forum made up of India, Japan, the U.S. and Australia — that made veiled references to Beijing's economic coercion and military expansion in the Pacific. The countries also reaffirmed their commitment to a rules based economic order without “intimidation and coercion.” But by Sunday, Biden was saying that the U.S. and China were getting close to pushing past the sky-high tensions that have existed since February when the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon it had discovered over its territory. "It got shot down and everything changed in terms of talking to one another. I think you're going to see that begin to thaw very shortly," Biden told reporters at the summit. The Biden administration expressed optimism that it could reschedule a visit to China by Blinken, but Beijing hasn’t been jumping to get it back on the calendar quickly. Longstanding disagreements over the Russian war and Taiwan were clear when Beijing China retaliated against a meeting between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in April. Afterward, Beijing stepped up its war games near the strip. Beijing's foreign minister also slammed the G-7 over the weekend, and said the summit was used to “smear and attack China and brazenly interfere in the country’s internal affairs.” NO WINNER IN GREEK ELECTION: Greece’s conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured the most votes in the country’s election on Sunday by a wide margin, but fell short of the 45 percent required to declare an outright victory. While a coalition government is possible, Mitsotakis has made it clear he would prefer a majority government and would hold out for a second round vote. That means Greeks will probably head to the ballot boxes again by early July. Biden’s absence disappoints the Indo-Pacific Blinken signed a new security pact with Papua New Guinea Monday, as the Biden administration moves to combat China’s rising influence in the country. “This agreement is not about geopolitics but rather recognizes the country’s need to build its Defence capabilities because border disputes are inevitable in the future,” the PNG government said in a statement, adding that the deal does not preclude engagement with other countries, including China. Expanded reach: Advanced text of the agreement was not released, but the pact is expected to give the U.S. access to Papua New Guinea’s ports and airports, in exchange for use of Washington’s satellite service to help curtail illegal sea activities. Peeved PNG: Blinken’s arrival in place of Biden was likely met with “extensive disappointment both in Papua New Guinea — which declared a national holiday for the visit — and the Pacific Islands more broadly,” Erin Murphy, an Indo-Pacific expert at CSIS told Global Insider. Turkish opposition’s pivot Kiliçdaroğlu is sharpening his rhetoric on Syrian refugees ahead of a run-off election next week, vowing to “send all refugees back.” “Erdoğan, you did not protect the borders,” he declared in a press conference Thursday. Kilicdaroglu, the soft-spoken leader of a six-party opposition coalition, highlighted unity during his campaign, and vowed to reverse his opponents' crackdowns on free speech. Kiliçdaroğlu’s “frequent use of the word ‘love’ in the first round has now been replaced with clenched fists and words like ‘fight against terrorists,’” Emre Kizilkaya, a researcher and journalist in Turkey, told Global Insider. Kingmaker or spoilsport: The pivot comes after the ultranationalist Sinan Oğan received about five percent of the vote in a first round election, outperforming expectations. Oğan’s campaign has largely built on promises of sending all Syrian refugees back to their countries, who he claimed posed a national security threat. Turkey has taken in about 3.6 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country. Resentment toward migrants is surging as the country faces an economic crisis after a February earthquake. But it’ll likely be hard for Kiliçdaroğlu to get the impact he wants with the shift. “Millions of voters will not even hear Kılıçdaroğlu's new message due to Erdoğan's media capture. Secondly, it may be too late as many voters may not find this message genuine and sincere now,” Kizilkaya added.
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