Tokyo, 8 June, /AJMEDIA/
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Europe next week on new economic cooperation, a government source said Friday.
At the planned meeting, possibly on the fringes of a three-day Group of Seven summit from next Thursday in Fasano in southern Italy, Kishida and Zelenskyy will likely sign deals on Tokyo’s fresh economic and reconstruction support measures for Kyiv, the source said.
The talks will come ahead of an international leader-level gathering, “Summit on Peace in Ukraine,” slated for June 15 to 16 in the Burgenstock resort in central Switzerland that Kishida is expected to attend after the G7 meeting.
Kishida is expected to tell Zelenskyy about Japan’s continued commitment to supporting Ukraine through such steps as demining, supporting the recovery of its agricultural production and infrastructure rebuilding, according to the source.
The two leaders last met bilaterally in May 2023, when Kishida hosted G7 leaders’ talks in Hiroshima and invited Zelenskyy to join them.
According to Ukrainian media outlets, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said Zelenskyy will participate in the upcoming G7 summit as a guest.
On Thursday, Kishida told a Diet committee session that he would lead international efforts to realize “a lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, Japan has provided Kyiv with financial aid and noncombat defense equipment such as bulletproof vests and surveillance drones, while condemning Moscow’s aggression together with other G7 members and like-minded nations.
In February this year, Japan hosted a conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine in Tokyo, pledging 15.8 billion yen ($100 million) in grant aid to assist with the restoration of electricity and other energy infrastructure among other recovery projects.
Tokyo and Kyiv then signed 56 memorandums of cooperation in seven fields such as agriculture and digitalization.
© KYODO
