KYIV, 21 Mar: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit Tuesday to Kyiv, stealing some of the global attention from Asian rival President Xi Jinping of China, who is in Moscow to show support for Russia against the West over the Kremlin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nThe two visits, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) apart, highlighted the nearly 13-month-old war\u2019s repercussions for international diplomacy as countries line up behind Moscow or Kyiv. They follow a week in which China and Japan both enjoyed diplomatic successes that have emboldened their foreign policy.
\nKishida, who is to chair the Group of Seven summit in May, will meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital, coinciding with Xi\u2019s talks for a second day with President Vladimir Putin in the Russian capital.
\nKishida will \u201cshow respect to the courage and patience of the Ukrainian people who are standing up to defend their homeland under President Zelenskyy\u2019s leadership, and show solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine as head of Japan and chairman of G-7,\u201d during his visit to Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in announcing his trip to Kyiv.
\nKyodo News said Kishida visited a church in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv that became a symbol of Russian atrocities against civilians, laid flowers at a church there and paid his respects to the victims.
\n\u201cI\u2019m outraged by the cruelty. I represent the Japanese citizens to express my condolences to those who lost their lives,\u201d he was quoted as saying.
\nU.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel tweeted about the \u201ctwo very different European-Pacific partnerships\u201d that unfolded Tuesday.
\n\u201cKishida stands with freedom, and Xi stands with a war criminal,\u201d Emanuel said, referring to last week\u2019s action by the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin, saying it wanted to put him on trial for the abductions of thousands of children from Ukraine.
\nWashington is accelerating its delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, choosing to send a refurbished older version that can be ready faster, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The aim is to get the 70-ton behemoths to the war zone in eight-to-10 months, the officials said on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been announced. The U.S. has led efforts among Kyiv\u2019s Western allies to augment Ukraine\u2019s military might.
\nPutin warmly welcomed Xi on Monday for a three-day visit the two major powers described as an opportunity to deepen their \u201cno-limits friendship.\u201d Putin is keen to show he has a heavyweight ally and also find a market for Russian energy products under Western sanctions.
\nSpeaking Tuesday at talks involving top officials from both countries, Putin said he wants to expand bilateral economic ties, noting Russian-Chinese trade rose by 30% last year to $185 billion. It\u2019s expected to top $200 billion this year, he added.
\nRussia stands \u201cready to meet the Chinese econo-my\u2019s growing demand for energy resources\u201d by boosting deliveries of oil and gas, he said.
\nThere are plans to expand industrial cooperation, including aircraft and shipbuilding industries, and other high-tech sectors.
\nXi said he aimed to \u201cstrengthen coordination and interaction\u201d with Russia, adding that it would help \u201cthe prosperity and revival of China and Russia.\u201d
\nRussia\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused NATO of wanting to become the world\u2019s dominant military force and said Moscow is trying to prevent it.
\n\u201cThat is why we are expanding our cooperation with China, including in the security sphere,\u201d he said.
\nWestern officials \u201chave seen some signs\u201d that Putin also wants lethal weapons from China, though there is no evidence Beijing has granted his request, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels on Tuesday.
\n\u201cChina should not provide lethal aid to Russia,\u201d Stoltenberg said. \u201cThat would be to support an illegal war and only prolong the war.\u201d
\nAt a meeting Tuesday with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Xi said he invited Putin to visit China later this year for a top-level meeting of China\u2019s One Belt, One Road regional initiative, which seeks to extend Beijing\u2019s influence through economic cooperation projects.
\nMoscow and Beijing have both weathered international condemnation of their human rights record. The Chinese government has been widely condemned for alleged atrocities against Uighur Muslims in its far western Xinjiang region. The allegations include genocide, forced sterilization and the mass detention of nearly 1 million Uighurs. Beijing has denied the allegations.
\nJapanese public television channel NTV showed Kishida riding a train from Poland to Kyiv. His trip comes just hours after he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and a week after a breakthrough summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yoel.
\nIn New Delhi, Kishida called for developing and Global South countries to raise their voices to defend the rules-based international order and help stop Russia\u2019s war. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV, 21 Mar: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit Tuesday to Kyiv, stealing some of the global attention from Asian rival President Xi Jinping of China, who is in Moscow to show support for Russia against the West over the Kremlin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. The two visits, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}