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To express “solidarity and unwavering support,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, according to Japan’s foreign office.
Since Japan will be hosting the G7 summit in May, Kishida, the most recent G7 leader to tour the war-torn nation, has come under increasing pressure to do so.
He has repeatedly stated that a trip to Kyiv is “under consideration,” but logistical and security issues are allegedly a significant roadblock.
Kishida was in India on Monday and was supposed to return to Tokyo, but he flew to Poland instead, where he is said to have taken a train to enter Ukraine.
According to the foreign ministry, he will show “respect for the courage and tenacity of the Ukrainian people” and pledge “the solidarity and unwavering support of Japan and the G7, chaired by Japan” for Ukraine.
The foreign ministry reported that Kishida would travel back to Poland for the meeting on Wednesday before returning to Tokyo on Thursday.
Japanese media, including the national broadcaster NHK, broke the news of the journey first. NHK’s reporters in Poland captured footage of a vehicle transporting the premier in the town of Przemysl, from which foreign leaders frequently board trains bound for Ukraine.
After US President Joe Biden made an unexpected detour in Kyiv to meet Zelensky in February, Kishida became the only G7 leader who had not been to the Ukrainian capital.
Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to tour an active conflict zone since World War II, but it was reported that Japanese officials were concerned about the trip’s security risks.
His arrival coincides with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow, where a key topic of discussion will be the conflict in the Ukraine.
Japan has backed Kyiv while joining Western partners in sanctioning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Additionally, it has taken the unusual actions of supplying defense gear and providing safety to people escaping the fighting.
But due to the post-war constitution of the country, which restricts its military power to ostensibly defensive measures, it has not provided military assistance.
In a speech last year, Kishida expressed concern that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” as there are growing fears that China may attack democratic, self-governing Taiwan.
The government of Japan also clearly warned that China presents the “greatest strategic challenge ever” to its security in December, as it revised some of its most important defense policies.
Japan set a target to increase defense spending by twofold to the NATO standard of two percent of GDP by 2027 in its biggest defense reform in decades.
The Group of Seven countries, who have sanctioned Russia in unison, are hosted by Japan this year.
May’s summit between the nations will take place in Hiroshima, and Kishida allegedly plans to invite Zelensky to attend.
Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea and Olaf Scholz of Germany were hosted by Kishida in Tokyo in recent days before Kishida traveled to New Delhi to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
