Japanese PRIME Minister Kishida to meet with Russian President Putin

As tensions continue to escalate on the border between Russia and Ukraine, he will reportedly hold a phone call between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, referring to developments on the Ukrainian border, “The tense situation continues and anything can happen. Japan should try to ease tensions through diplomatic means.” Prime Minister Kishida was quoted as saying, “If we do not speak out against the use of force to change the status quo, we must take into account the possibility that this will also affect Asia.”

SUPPORTED UKRAINE’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

In a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski earlier this week, Prime Minister Kishida underlined his country’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The two leaders agreed to make stubborn diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the region. Therefore, prime minister Kishida is almost certain to call for diplomacy with Moscow during his meeting with President Putin.

INVASION CONCERN IN UKRAINE

After Russia deployed troops to the Ukrainian border, the possibility of an invasion and conflict in the region gained strength, and Moscow’s military exercises with Belarus were interpreted as “preparation for invasion”.

Western countries have signaled that sanctions will be put in place in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while Russia could retaliate by halting gas exports.

Finally, Moscow announced that it was withdrawing some of its troops from the border region, and said it was ready to conduct more diplomatic traffic with western countries to ease tensions.