Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kishida is the only leader among the Group of Seven (G-7) who has not visited Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022. Kishida’s trip would make him the second Asian leader after Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s visit in June 2022.
It was earlier reported that Kishida was expected to visit Ukraine’s capital before the G-7 Hiroshima Summit, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky. The statement came after Zelenskyy had participated in a virtual G-7 leaders’ meeting on the invitation of Kishida.
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When asked if Kishida would visit before Japan hosts the summit in May, Korsunsky said, “for sure” without providing further details on the timeline of the potential trip.
Korsunsky said in February that, if Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally attended the summit in Hiroshima, it would be an extremely powerful message to the world about the G-7’s intentions to fight against nuclear terrorists in any form.
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Korsunsky stated that Kishida understood the G-7 Chair’s responsibility to visit Ukraine before the Hiroshima summit and that it was a matter of “when and how”. The ambassador said that, from his discussions with political leaders, Kishida was willing to visit Ukraine and that it will result in the best possible manner as soon as possible.
The ambassador emphasised logistical and security issues as top concerns for Kishida’s potential trip to Ukraine. He also noted that security concerns are a priority in discussions about Zelenskyy’s potential visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, CNBC reported.
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If invited by the G-7 nations, Zelenskyy would carefully consider this opportunity, taking into account issues of logistics and security, as per Korsunsky’s earlier comment. The ambassador stated that a potential trip by Zelenskyy to Hiroshima would carry symbolic significance, given that Ukraine faced credible threats similar to that of the atomic bombings on Japan during World War II.
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