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Tokyo [Japan]March 21 (ANI): Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Ukraine on Tuesday and hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyodo news agency reported citing government sources.
The meeting follows a visit to India by the Japanese prime minister, who held a delegation-level bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday.
Kishida’s surprise visit marked the first visit by a Japanese leader to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.
Kishida boarded a train in Przemysl, Poland, near the Ukrainian border, at around 1:30 a.m. (local time) on Tuesday. According to NHK, Kishida is expected to arrive in Ukraine later in the day and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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Japan holds the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7), and Kishida is scheduled to host the three-day G7 meeting this May in Hiroshima, which was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in August 1945, Kyodo News reported.
In Ukraine, Kishida is expected to demonstrate Japan’s commitment to aid the war-torn country, Kyodo News reported.
Kishida is the only G7 leader who has not traveled to Ukraine following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor.
“Japan will expand cooperation for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine forces us to face the most fundamental challenge to safeguarding peace,” the Japanese prime minister said in a speech at Delhi’s Sapru House on Monday.
Kishida emphasized that this vision will be nurtured by diverse national voices, characterized by a free and open Indo-Pacific. It is important, he said, to steer the international community in a direction of cooperation rather than confrontation and division.
Japan’s prime minister said the international community had entered an “intricate” era of cooperation and division. He condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also told Russian President Vladimir Putin that “today’s time is not war,” he said.
Kishida said: “In the international community, the balance of power is undergoing tremendous changes, and drastic changes are taking place. The international community has entered an era where cooperation and division are intertwined.”
“I reiterate that Japan strongly condemns Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and will never admit it. Prime Minister Modi also expressed to President Putin that today is not an era of war. Japan opposes unilateral change of the status quo by force anywhere in the world,” he said . explain.
Prime Minister Kishida also called India an “indispensable partner” and said Japan would expand cooperation for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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