TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was heading to Kyiv early Tuesday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Japan’s public television NHK showed Kishida riding a train from Poland heading to Kyiv. Kishida’s surprise trip to Ukraine comes just hours after he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Kishida, who is to chair the Group of Seven summit in May, is the only G-7 leader who hasn’t visited Ukraine and was under pressure to do so at home.
Due to limitations of Japan’s pacifist constitution, his trip was carefully arranged secretly. Kishida is Japan’s first postwar leader to enter a war zone. Kishida, asked before his trip to India about a rumor of his possible trip at the end of March, denied it and said nothing concrete has been decided.
Japan has joined the United States and European nations in sanctioning Russia over its invasion and providing humanitarian and economic support for Ukraine.
Japan was quick to react because it fears the possible impact of a war in East Asia, where China’s military has grown increasingly assertive and has escalated tensions around self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.
Kishida is expected to offer continuing support for Ukraine when he meets with Zelenskyy.
Television footage on NHK showed Kishida getting on a train from the Polish station of Przemysl near the border with Ukraine, with a number of officials.
Due to its pacifist principles, Japan’s support for Ukraine has also been limited to non-combative military equipment such as helmets, bulletproof vests and drones, and humanitarian supplies including generators.
Japan has contributed to Ukraine more than $7 billion, and accepted more than 2,000 displaced Ukrainians and helped them with housing assistance and support for jobs and education - a rare move for a country that is known for its strict immigration policy.
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