Japan PM Kishida arrives in Kyiv for talks with Zelenskiy

[March 21, 2023]  TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Tuesday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, broadcaster NHK said.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks about his parent policy at a press conference at his official residence in Tokyo on March 17, 2023. YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/Pool via REUTERS

Representing one of the rich democracies in the Group of Seven, Kishida will voice support and solidarity with Ukraine following the invasion by Russian forces more than a year ago, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Kishida will convey "his respect for the courage and perseverance of the Ukrainian people standing up to defend their homeland," it said.

Japan will host a G7 summit in Hiroshima in May, and Kishida has previously said that the summit should demonstrate a strong will to uphold international order and rule of law in response to the Ukraine war.

NHK showed footage of Kishida talking to officials as he stood next to a train. He had arrived in Kyiv after boarding a train in the Polish border town of Przemysl.

Kishida will also hold talks with his Polish counterpart before returning to Japan on Thursday, the ministry said.

Prior to leaving for Poland en route to Ukraine, Kishida visited India, where he met his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, NHK reported.

(Reporting by Junko Fujita, Yoshifumi Takemoto and Kentaro Sugiyama; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Simon Cameron-Moore)

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