Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida began a surprise visit to Ukraine early Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighboring Russia for a three-day visit. Dueling summits occur when longtime rivals are on diplomatic offensives.
Kishida will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital.
He will “show respect for the courage and patience of the Ukrainian people who rise up to defend their homeland under the leadership of President Zelenskyy, and show solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine as Japan’s leader and G-7 chairman,” during his visit. . to Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said when announcing his trip to kyiv.
At the talks, Kishida will show his “absolute rejection of Russia’s unilateral change to the status quo through invasion and force, and affirm his commitment to upholding the rules-based international order,” the ministry statement said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warmly welcomed Xi to the Kremlin on a visit the two nations describe as an opportunity to deepen their “boundless friendship.”
The Japanese public television channel NTV showed Kishida traveling on a train from Poland to kyiv. His surprise trip to Ukraine comes just hours after meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and a week after a revolutionary summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yoel.
In New Delhi, Kishida called on developing countries and the Global South to speak up for the rules-based international order and help stop Russia’s war.
Japan, which has territorial disputes over islands with both China and Russia, is particularly concerned about the close relationship between Beijing and Moscow, which have held joint military exercises off Japan’s coast.
Kishida, who will chair the Group of Seven summit in May, is the only G-7 leader who has not visited Ukraine and was under pressure to do so at home. US President Joe Biden took a similar route to visit kyiv last month, just before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Due to the limitations of Japan’s pacifist constitution, their trip was arranged in secret. Kishida is the first postwar leader of Japan to enter a war zone. Kishida, invited by Zelenskyy in January to visit Kiev, was also asked before his trip to India about a rumor of his possible trip at the end of March, which he denied, saying nothing concrete has been decided.
Japan joined the United States and European nations in sanctioning Russia for its invasion and providing humanitarian and economic support to Ukraine.
Japan reacted quickly because it fears the potential impact of a war in East Asia, where China’s military has become increasingly assertive and heightened tensions over self-rule Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing’s contacts with Russia will help bring about peace. “President Putin said that Russia appreciates China’s consistent position of upholding fairness, objectivity and balance in major international affairs,” he said. “Russia has carefully studied China’s position paper on the political settlement of the Ukraine issue and is open to peace talks.”
When asked about Kishida’s trip to kyiv, he added: “We hope that Japan can do more to de-escalate the situation rather than the other way around.”
Kishida is expected to offer continued support to Ukraine when he meets with Zelenskyy.
Television footage on NTV showed Kishida boarding a train from the Polish Przemysl station, near the Ukrainian border, with several officials.
Due to its pacifist principles, Japan’s support for Ukraine has also been limited to non-combat military equipment such as helmets, body armor and drones, and humanitarian supplies, including generators.
Japan has contributed more than $7 billion to Ukraine and has taken in more than 2,000 displaced Ukrainians and helped them with housing assistance, employment and education support, a rare measure in a country known for its strict immigration policy.
