SINGAPORE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Singapore to attend a top Asian defense summit this weekend and seek to win over countries in the region.
Zelenskyy will deliver an in-person speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, considered Asia’s premier defense summit, according to a person involved in the planning, who was granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Rumors that Zelenskyy would make the trip to Singapore had been swirling for weeks, with the president expected to plead Ukraine’s case and convince countries in the so-called Global South to ditch Russia, in a region where the Israel-Hamas war has overshadowed the war in Europe. Reuters was first to confirm Zelenskyy was planning to attend the summit.
With Ukraine’s troops facing a difficult summer as Russian forces mount a renewed offensive, particularly in the Kharkiv region, Zelenskyy has been traveling the globe seeking to convince countries to help Kyiv by supplying weapons and cutting ties with Moscow. He previously addressed the Shangri-La summit remotely in June 2022, just months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun are among the top names who have made the trip to Singapore for the summit this year.
Kyiv has been seeking meetings with China’s top officials, as Beijing has supported Moscow’s war efforts after declaring a “no-limits” friendship with Russia. In particular, Zelenskyy has appealed for Beijing to send a top representative to the Ukraine peace summit, to be held in Switzerland June 15-16. But on Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing would not attend the conference because Russia had not been invited.