Ukrainian crisis: Kishinda will talk to Zelensky today

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today, according to a government source, at a time when Tokyo is expressing “deep concern” about the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to local media, Kishida will talk this afternoon, during Japanese time, with Zelensky about the efforts to de-escalate the tension with Russia and the measures for the protection of the Japanese citizens who are in Ukraine.

Tokyo is “watching the situation with great concern,” Kishida said this morning.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely, while at the same time coordinating closely with the G7 countries to deal with any developments in an appropriate manner,” Kishida added during a meeting between government officials and members of the ruling PLD party.

Yesterday, the G7 finance ministers said they were ready to impose “very soon” economic and financial sanctions that would have “massive and direct effects on the Russian economy” in the event of an attack on Ukraine.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi today reiterated Tokyo’s support for “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” but declined to comment on the form of possible international sanctions against Moscow.

For his part, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kisi referred to Russia’s increased naval presence in the Sea of ​​Japan and in the southern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, which borders the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

“We believe that the Russians intend to demonstrate their ability to operate in the east and west, in parallel with the military exercises of the Russian army around Ukraine,” Kisi said in a Twitter post.

Russian-Japanese relations are complicated: the two countries have not signed a post-World War II peace treaty over a territorial dispute over four small islands in the Kuril archipelago bordering Hokkaido, which were occupied by Moscow in the last days of the war. and never returned to Tokyo.

Japan recently agreed to supply liquefied natural gas to Europe to deal with disruptions to Russian gas supplies in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, but the quantities it will offer are expected to be symbolic.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

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