Ishiba, Zelenskyy Agree to Cooperate on Ukrainian Situation in Their 1st Meeting; Japan Pledges Continued Support
Pool photo / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, second from left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, meet in Kananaskis, Canada, on Tuesday.
BANFF, Canada — Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to continue to work closely over the situation in Ukraine and strengthen bilateral relations, in their first face-to-face meeting that took place in Kananaskis, Western Canada, on Tuesday afternoon.
The about-30-minute meeting was held on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit.
'A lasting peace in Ukraine should be brought about as soon as possible,' Ishiba said at the beginning of their meeting, conveying his intention to work closely with the G7 nations to support Ukraine, which is facing Russia's aggression.
Japan has so far provided Ukraine with more than $12 billion (about \1.75 trillion) in financial aid, and Ishiba expressed his intention to continue to support the country. He also indicated that Japan will hold an international conference on dealing with landmines in Ukraine on Oct. 22.
Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for Japan's support and explained the current situation of the war and future prospects.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
Japan scraps U.S. meeting after Washington demands more defense spending: report
FILE PHOTO: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba gives his opening speech at the beginning of the meeting with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at his office in Tokyo. March 30, 2025. Stanislav Kogiku/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Japan has canceled a regular high-level meeting with its key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense, the Financial Times reported on Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in Washington on July 1 for the annual 2+2 security talks. But Tokyo scrapped the meeting after the U.S. asked Japan to boost defense spending to 3.5% of gross domestic product, higher than an earlier request of 3%, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday that President Donald Trump's government was demanding that its Asian allies, including Japan, spend 5% of GDP on defense. A U.S. official who asked not to be identified told Reuters that Japan had "postponed" the talks in a decision made several weeks ago. The official did not cite a reason. A non-government source familiar with the issue said he had also heard Japan had pulled out of the meeting but not the reason for it doing so. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said she had no comment on the FT report when asked about it at regular briefing. The Pentagon also had no immediate comment. Japan's embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The nation's foreign and defense ministries and the Prime Minister's Office did not answer phone calls seeking comment outside business hours on Saturday. The FT said the higher spending demand was made in recent weeks by Elbridge Colby, the third-most senior Pentagon official, who has also recently upset another key U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific by launching a review of a project to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. In March, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that other nations do not decide Japan's defense budget after Colby, in his nomination hearing to be under secretary of defense for policy, called for Tokyo to spend more to counter China. Japan and other U.S. allies have been engaged in difficult trade talks with the United States over President Donald Trump's worldwide tariff offensive. The FT said the decision to cancel the July 1 meeting was also related to Japan's July 20 upper house elections, expected to be a major test for Ishiba's minority coalition government. Japan's move on the 2+2 comes ahead of a meeting of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in Europe next week, at which Trump is expected to press his demand that European allies boost their defense spending to 5% of GDP. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Asahi Shimbun
an hour ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Modi coming in August to seal deal on bullet trains for India
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviews the honor guard at the Government House in Bangkok on April 3. (Reuters) Japanese and Indian officials are putting the final touches on a trip to Japan in late August by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that will see Tokyo reaping a windfall sale of the latest Shinkansen bullet train technology to New Delhi. East Japan Railway Co. is planning to start commercial operations of its new E10 series of bullet trains in fiscal 2030, which the government has already said it is willing to share with India, according to several diplomatic sources in the two nations. 'This would be the first case of the latest model being introduced simultaneously in Japan and another country,' said a government source in Tokyo. During Modi's visit in late 2015 when Shinzo Abe was prime minister, it was agreed that India's first high-speed railway network would use Japanese technology. Initially, the E5 series used on the Tohoku Shinkansen line was to be exported to India. But then JR East in March announced plans to begin development of the next-generation E10 series of bullet trains, so officials approached their Indian counterparts about using that technology instead, according to sources. Modi last visited Japan in May 2023 as one of the invited leaders to join the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima. One aim of the August trip is to set a pattern of reciprocal visits by the leaders of the two nations. India will host the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as the Quad meeting, that groups Australia, India, Japan and the United States this autumn. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to attend. Arrangements are now being worked out for Modi and Ishiba in August to visit the plant in Miyagi Prefecture where the E10 prototype is being developed. Modi will also get an update on a plan announced in 2022 by Ishiba's predecessor, Fumio Kishida, for Japan to invest 5 trillion yen ($34.2 billion) in India over a five-year period. The two leaders are also expected to discuss cooperation in constructing a supply chain for semiconductors and other vital products. Modi may visit China after his Japan trip to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, according to diplomatic sources. Russia is also a member of that organization. By visiting Japan prior to China, Modi will alleviate concerns in Tokyo that New Delhi, with its longstanding nonaligned diplomatic policy, is too dependent on Beijing, a government source said. (This article was written by Nen Satomi in Tokyo and Takashi Ishihara in New Delhi.)
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Can NATO keep Trump on-message about Russia threat?
When leaders from NATO's 32 countries gather for a summit in The Hague next week, most want to send a clear message: Russia is the main threat to their alliance. But the loudest voice in the room likely won't be on the same page. Since coming back to office, U.S. President Donald Trump has upended the West's approach toward Russia's war on Ukraine by undercutting Kyiv and opening the door to closer ties with Moscow. While the volatile leader has expressed some frustration with Russia's Vladimir Putin for refusing a ceasefire, he has steered clear of punishing the Kremlin. At a Group of Seven summit this week Trump made waves by saying the group of industrialized countries should never have expelled Russia. Ahead of the Hague gathering, diplomats at NATO have been wrangling over a five-paragraph summit statement, with many countries pressing for a full-throated assertion of the menace from Moscow. That, they say, will help explain the main thrust of the meeting: an agreement for countries to ramp up defense spending to satisfy Trump's demand for it to reach 5% of GDP. Since the Kremlin launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the alliance has called Russia "the most significant and direct threat to allies' security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area." But this time around the United States — backed up by Moscow-friendly Hungary and Slovakia — has been intent on watering that down. Diplomats have been juggling with variants such as referring to "threats, including Russia" or mentioning "the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security." The verbal nuances may seem slight, but they mean a lot to those countries being asked to massively ramp up spending and those on NATO's eastern flank most threatened by the Kremlin. NATO has warned that Russia could be ready to attack an alliance country within five years. "If we can get Trump to sign off on calling Russia a long-term threat then that would be a good result," a senior European diplomat said. As U.S. peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine have stalled, the diplomat said that Washington appeared to have "moved a centimeter in our direction" on taking a stronger stance on Russia. "Of course more hawkish countries want to go further — but just getting Trump to agree that would still be fine," the diplomat said. Part of the U.S. reasoning is that Washington is more worried about the threat China poses worldwide — and that Russia is more a problem just in Europe. "Russia is the near threat," said U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker. "But China is obviously a big challenge for all of us, and we need to be allied and address those threats as well." Camille Grand of the European Council on Foreign Relations said that beneath the diplomatic fine-tuning, NATO was being confronted by a "fundamental question." "How does the United States view Russia?" he said. "So far we haven't really got an answer." Even if NATO does opt for stronger wording on Moscow, there is always the possibility that Trump could show up in The Hague and directly contradict it. But the debate could come into sharper focus in the months after the summit when the United States could announce a pullback of forces in Europe as part of a review of its global deployments. One area where Washington appears clearly not on board with most other allies is on backing Ukraine. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to attend on the sidelines of the summit but his involvement is being kept to a minimum to avoid a bust-up with Trump. Diplomats said there should be a reference in the summit statement linking new defense spending to helping Ukraine — but there will be no talk of Kyiv's long-term push to join NATO. "The U.S. does not see Ukrainian security as essential to European security," said Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. "Our European allies do, so they feel that if Putin is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, or if Ukraine does not survive as a sovereign, independent state, they are at risk."
