TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Tuesday to offer “solidarity and unwavering support,” Japan’s foreign ministry said.
Kishida is the last G7 leader to visit the war-torn country and has come under increasing pressure to make the trip, as Japan hosts the grouping’s summit this May.
He has repeatedly said a visit to Kyiv was “under consideration,” though security and logistical challenges were reportedly a major obstacle.
Kishida was in India on Monday and had been expected to return to Tokyo, but instead flew to Poland, where he reportedly boarded a train to cross into Ukraine.
He will express “respect for the courage and perseverance of the Ukrainian people” and offer “the solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine of Japan and the G7, chaired by Japan,” the foreign ministry said.
Kishida is expected to return to Poland for summit talks on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, before arriving back in Tokyo on Thursday.
News of the trip was first reported by Japanese media, including national broadcaster NHK, whose reporters in Poland filmed a car carrying the premier in the town of Przemysl, from where foreign leaders have often taken the train into Ukraine.
Kishida became the only G7 leader not to have visited Kyiv after US President Joe Biden made a surprise stop to meet Zelensky in February.
But Japanese officials were reportedly worried about the security risks of a trip for Kishida, who becomes the first Japanese prime minister to visit an active warzone since World War II.
His trip comes with Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting Moscow for talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, with the Ukraine conflict high on the agenda.
Japan has joined Western allies in sanctioning Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, while offering support to Kyiv.
It has also taken the rare steps of sending defensive equipment and offering refuge to those fleeing the conflict.
It has not offered military support, however, because the nation’s post-war constitution limits its military capacity to ostensibly defensive measures.
Kishida warned in a speech last year that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” as concerns grow that China could invade democratic, self-ruled Taiwan.
And in December, as Japan overhauled its key defense policies, the government explicitly warned that China poses the “greatest strategic challenge ever” to its security.
In its largest defense shake-up in decades, Japan set a goal of doubling defense spending to the NATO standard of two percent of GDP by 2027.
Japan is this year’s host of the Group of Seven nations, which have taken a united approach in sanctioning Russia.
The countries will meet for a summit in Hiroshima in May, which Kishida is reportedly considering inviting Zelensky to attend.
Kishida has been on a diplomatic blitz in recent days, hosting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Tokyo before heading to New Delhi for talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Japan PM Kishida to meet Zelensky in surprise Kyiv visit
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Japan PM Kishida to meet Zelensky in surprise Kyiv visit
- Fumio Kishida is the last G7 leader to visit Ukraine and has come under increasing pressure to make the trip
- News of the trip was first reported by Japanese media, including national broadcaster NHK
Greece backs coast guard after latest deadly migrant crash
ATHENS: The Greek government has firmly backed its coast guard, insisting it is “not a welcoming committee” as questions grow over a collision in the Aegean Sea this week that killed 15 asylum seekers.
The deadly crash occurred late Tuesday when the high-speed boat the migrants were traveling in collided with a coast guard patrol vessel off the Greek island of Chios, not far from the Turkish coast.
Four women were among the dead, while 24 survivors have been admitted to hospital in Chios.
Rights groups and international media have repeatedly accused Greece of illegally forcing would-be asylum seekers back into Turkish waters, backing their claims with video and witness testimonies.
Greek media and opposition parties have questioned the details of Tuesday’s crash, and the country’s ombudsman has called for “an impartial and thorough investigation,” stressing that the priority should always be “the protection of human life.”
On Thursday, the government said it fully backed the maritime agency.
“We have full confidence in the coast guard and we support them,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters.
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was expecting “a full investigation” into the crash.
In the meantime, he argued that preliminary details showed that “essentially, our coast guard ship was rammed by a much smaller boat.”
“This is a situation that happens quite frequently in the Aegean,” he told Foreign Policy, arguing that smugglers were endangering migrants’ lives.
Had Greek authorities not been present, more people would probably have died, he alleged.
The coast guard was “not a welcoming committee” for people seeking asylum in the European Union, he told the magazine.
- Questions -
Following the crash the coast guard said the pilot of the migrant boat had ignored signals and “made a U-turn maneuver” before colliding with the Greek patrol boat.
“Under the force of the impact, the speedboat capsized and then sank, throwing everyone on board into the sea,” the agency said.
So far, none of the hospitalized survivors have testified directly.
One of them, a 31-year-old Moroccan man, was to be questioned by police as a possible smuggler.
Several Greek media outlets, including To Vima and private TV channel Mega, have reported the victims died of severe head injuries.
Some news organizations have questioned why the patrol boat’s thermal camera was not switched on.
“The captain of the patrol boat judged it unnecessary because the migrants’ speedboat had already been detected by a camera on shore and a spotlight,” government spokesman Marinakis said.
The port police released photos of the coast guard patrol vessel showing minor damage, but no images of the asylum seekers’ boat.
- ‘Obvious distress’ -
Abusive pushbacks have become the “norm” in Greece, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in 2023.
The crash off Chios was “not an isolated incident,” the Refugee Support Aegean charity said this week.
“Based on the available information and the initial announcement of the Hellenic Coast Guard, it appears that, instead of a search and rescue operation, an interception operation was deployed from the outset,” RSA said in a statement.
“This occurred while the refugees’ boat was in obvious distress, was overcrowded and was located at a short distance from the Greek coast,” the statement added.
It is far from the first time that international organizations have pointed the finger at Greece over how it treats migrant boats.
Eighteen of its coast guard members are being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter due to negligence in the sinking of the trawler Adriana in June 2023.
The United Nations said around 750 people died in that tragedy — one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in the past decade.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for its responsibility in the capsizing of a migrant boat off the islet of Farmakonisi in the Aegean Sea.
Eleven people died, including eight children.
The deadly crash occurred late Tuesday when the high-speed boat the migrants were traveling in collided with a coast guard patrol vessel off the Greek island of Chios, not far from the Turkish coast.
Four women were among the dead, while 24 survivors have been admitted to hospital in Chios.
Rights groups and international media have repeatedly accused Greece of illegally forcing would-be asylum seekers back into Turkish waters, backing their claims with video and witness testimonies.
Greek media and opposition parties have questioned the details of Tuesday’s crash, and the country’s ombudsman has called for “an impartial and thorough investigation,” stressing that the priority should always be “the protection of human life.”
On Thursday, the government said it fully backed the maritime agency.
“We have full confidence in the coast guard and we support them,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters.
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was expecting “a full investigation” into the crash.
In the meantime, he argued that preliminary details showed that “essentially, our coast guard ship was rammed by a much smaller boat.”
“This is a situation that happens quite frequently in the Aegean,” he told Foreign Policy, arguing that smugglers were endangering migrants’ lives.
Had Greek authorities not been present, more people would probably have died, he alleged.
The coast guard was “not a welcoming committee” for people seeking asylum in the European Union, he told the magazine.
- Questions -
Following the crash the coast guard said the pilot of the migrant boat had ignored signals and “made a U-turn maneuver” before colliding with the Greek patrol boat.
“Under the force of the impact, the speedboat capsized and then sank, throwing everyone on board into the sea,” the agency said.
So far, none of the hospitalized survivors have testified directly.
One of them, a 31-year-old Moroccan man, was to be questioned by police as a possible smuggler.
Several Greek media outlets, including To Vima and private TV channel Mega, have reported the victims died of severe head injuries.
Some news organizations have questioned why the patrol boat’s thermal camera was not switched on.
“The captain of the patrol boat judged it unnecessary because the migrants’ speedboat had already been detected by a camera on shore and a spotlight,” government spokesman Marinakis said.
The port police released photos of the coast guard patrol vessel showing minor damage, but no images of the asylum seekers’ boat.
- ‘Obvious distress’ -
Abusive pushbacks have become the “norm” in Greece, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in 2023.
The crash off Chios was “not an isolated incident,” the Refugee Support Aegean charity said this week.
“Based on the available information and the initial announcement of the Hellenic Coast Guard, it appears that, instead of a search and rescue operation, an interception operation was deployed from the outset,” RSA said in a statement.
“This occurred while the refugees’ boat was in obvious distress, was overcrowded and was located at a short distance from the Greek coast,” the statement added.
It is far from the first time that international organizations have pointed the finger at Greece over how it treats migrant boats.
Eighteen of its coast guard members are being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter due to negligence in the sinking of the trawler Adriana in June 2023.
The United Nations said around 750 people died in that tragedy — one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in the past decade.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for its responsibility in the capsizing of a migrant boat off the islet of Farmakonisi in the Aegean Sea.
Eleven people died, including eight children.
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