TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday pledged his country\u2019s long-term engagement in Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction, calling it a future investment, as Japan stressed its commitment to supporting the war-torn country ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion.
In his keynote speech at a conference Japan co-organized with the Ukrainian government and business organizations, Kishida said Japanese public and private cooperation will be a long-term partnership based on inclusivity, humanitarianism as well as technology and knowledge. More than 50 cooperation deals were signed by Japanese and Ukrainian government agencies and companies.
Kishida stressed the importance of investment across industries for the future of that country\u2019s development and ensuring that the support caters to Ukraine\u2019s needs.
Support for Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction is about \u201cinvesting in the future,\u201d Kishida said. \u201cThe war in Ukraine is still going on at this very moment and the situation is not easy. The promotion of economic reconstruction, however, is not only an investment for the future of Ukraine but also investing in Japan and the whole globe.\u201d
Ukraine\u2019s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who heads headed his country\u2019s delegation of more than 100 people, expressed thanks for the encouragement and said that \u201ctoday is the new start of cooperation between the two countries.\u201d
He said \u201cUkraine is not just rebuilding, we are generating new rules of the game, new approaches,\u201d he said. All eyes are on Ukraine, and \u201cdictators and potential invaders\u201d are also turning their eyes to see how Russia\u2019s violation of the international law is seen and how the world will react to it.
About 300 people and 80 companies are to attend from the two countries, Japanese officials have said.
The Japan-Ukraine Conference for Promotion of Economic Growth and Reconstruction is co-organized by the Japanese and Ukrainian governments, Japan\u2019s powerful business organization Keidanren, and Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO.
The two sides issued a joint communique, stating Japan\u2019s long-term support in helping Ukraine achieve economic stability. The two countries also noted the importance of maintaining tough sanctions against Russia. Japan also announced the start of talks toward revising a bilateral investment pact and easing of travel restrictions for Japanese business visitors to Ukraine.
Japan hopes the conference will build momentum for international support for Ukraine as the war drags on and attention has diverted to the Gaza situation.
The conference is largely about reconstruction and investment in Ukraine, but it\u2019s also about Japan\u2019s national security.
Kishida repeatedly said that \u201cUkraine today could be East Asia tomorrow,\u201d and it is crucial for Japan to advocate its objection to Russia\u2019s invasion and to the one-sided change of the status quo by force. Its support for Ukraine comes amid fear of China\u2019s increasingly assertive military actions in the region.
\u201cIt is extremely important that we demonstrate our solidarity to Ukraine in our uniquely Japanese way,\u201d Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters Friday.
Japan\u2019s $12.1 billion contribution to Ukraine over the past two years is mostly financial and humanitarian as its military equipment provisions are limited to non-lethal weapons, and much smaller compared to $111 billion the United States has provided in weapons, equipment, humanitarian assistance.
Japan\u2019s government has chosen seven target areas \u2014 including removal of mines and debris; improvement of humanitarian and living conditions; farming; biochemical manufacturing; digital and information industry; infrastructure in power and transportation sectors; and anti-corruption measures.
Japan, in cooperation with other Group of Seven members, hopes to link the Tokyo conference to a separate Ukraine reconstruction conference to be held in Germany in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday pledged his country\u2019s long-term engagement in Ukraine\u2019s reconstruction, calling it a future investment, as Japan stressed its commitment to supporting the war-torn country ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion.In his keynote speech at a conference Japan co-organized with the Ukrainian government and business organizations, Kishida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3294,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3292\/revisions\/3294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}