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.
Japan PM Kishida to meet Zelensky in surprise Kyiv visit
https://arab.news/j5zke
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
Indian farmers, unions strike against new trade deal with US
- India agreed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on US industrial goods, wide range of farm, food products
- Commerce minister says farmers will not suffer ‘any harm’ as deal is ‘fair, equitable, and balanced’
NEW DELHI: Indian farmers took part in nationwide trade union protests on Thursday, saying they fear the implications of New Delhi’s new trade pact with the US, which will result in American products gaining duty-free access to the Indian market.
Agriculture provides livelihoods for more than 40 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population, and opening the sector to foreign competition has long been politically sensitive.
India signed an interim framework of the US trade deal last week, with the formal pact being expected to be finalized by March. The US cut its 50 percent duty on Indian goods to 18 percent, while India agreed to eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of farm and food products.
While details of the agreement have not yet been announced, farmers fear being undercut by cheap, subsidized American products which will threaten their livelihood.
Rakesh Tikait, national spokesman for the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Indian Farmers’ Union) said the government had not held discussions with farmers before agreeing to the deal.
The BKU and other rural platforms have joined a broader strike held across India by major trade unions opposed to new labor codes — which have been criticized for weakening workers’ rights and reducing job security — as they saw common cause with other workers.
“We are protesting against the US–India trade deal, which we fear goes against the larger interests of Indian farmers. If US farm goods, fishery products, and dairy products hit the Indian market, Indian farmers cannot withstand this onslaught and would be ruined,” Tikait told Arab News from a protest site in Western Uttar Pradesh.
“We want this deal to be changed and made pro-farmer. Otherwise we will oppose it tooth and nail.”
According to Rajveer Singh Jadaun, president of the farmers’ union in Uttar Pradesh, the agriculture sector is facing an “existential threat” in a country that historically imposes tariffs of 30–150 percent on imports to protect farmers.
With tariffs reduced or eliminated and those imposed on Indian products higher than before, protesting farmers are convinced there is no level playing field.
“The deal is giving a zero percent tariff to the US’ agricultural and other products and we are charged 18 percent, which is higher than the 3 percent in the past,” Jadaun said.
“American farmers are celebrating the deal — that means there is something fishy … The government is speaking in many voices and that creates further confusion. I would like the government to clarify the stand and make everything clear.”
Prices of Indian corn and soybean have already fallen by 4 percent and 10 percent respectively, following the deal’s announcement.
P. Krishna Prasad, finance secretary of the All India Farmers’ Union, predicted that prices of other products may soon fall, too.
“They are bringing fresh and processed fruits. If apples are being brought at 75 rupees ($1) per kilo to India from America, then the apple economy of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will collapse,” he said.
“In America, there are only 1.7 million farmers, but in India there are 166 million farmer households. And in America, one farmer household is getting a 60 lakh rupees ($73,000) subsidy per year. In India, that is nearly 27,000 rupees ($330) per year. There is no level playing field. Indian farmers cannot compete with these highly motorized or mechanized farms of America.”
While Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has addressed the protesters — saying that they “will not suffer any harm” as the trade deal is “fair, equitable, and balanced” — Prasad warned they were prepared to stage a strike similar to the 2020-21 protest, in which they opposed three farm acts that sought to open the sector to corporations.
The strike, that lasted nearly 18 months, involved millions of protesters and was India’s largest and longest in recent times. It forced the government to repeal the contested legislation.
“America will dictate Indian policy, so the sovereignty of the Indian people and the country is totally being compromised,” Prasad said.
“We feel this is a total surrender of Indian farmers and Indian agriculture to imperialist, multinational corporations. We cannot accept it. We will stop it. We will come to the streets and build this agitation bigger than the 2021 farmers’ agitation.”
