Japan PM Fumio Kishida mulls invitation to visit Ukraine

Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday said he had told Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskyy over a telephonic call that he would weigh an invitation to visit Kyiv depending on “various circumstances” but nothing had been decided so far.

Kishida also reiterated Tokyo’s full support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia as Japan assumes the rotating chair of the Group of Seven (G7) countries.

“I strongly condemned Russia’s continued aggression, and stated that Japan would do its utmost to provide assistance, including to get through the winter, in order to protect the lives of the Ukrainian people,” Kishida told reporters.

Earlier, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a regular news conference that the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, had extended an invitation via Tokyo’s ambassador to Kyiv for Kishida to visit Ukraine.

The Japanese Prime Minister confirmed that he had received the invitation but said nothing had yet been decided. “I would like to consider it based on various circumstances,” he added.

Next week Kishida is set to visit most other G7 member countries in a key diplomatic tour before Japan hosts the annual G7 summit in May in Hiroshima, when Ukraine is expected to be a major topic of discussion.

The other G7 countries are the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

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