Tokyo, June 12 (EFE).- Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida left for Italy on Wednesday to participate in the G7 summit in which he will lead discussions on issues of interest to Tokyo such as China’s overproduction and tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
At the summit running from Thursday to Saturday in Puglia, southern Italy, Kishida will be a lead speaker on the situation in the Indo-Pacific region, including North Korea, a Japanese government official said, according to Kyodo news.
The leader will then go to Switzerland for the peace conference on Ukraine during June 15-16 in Lucerne, and in which Japan is expected to reaffirm its support for Kyiv and its willingness to maintain sanctions on Moscow.
At the G7 summit, Kishida hopes to discuss a number of global challenges taking into account the idea of upholding and reinforcing a free and open international order based on the rule of law and collaboration with partners beyond the G7, he told reporters before departing from Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
In particular, Kishida is expected to defend the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific to counter China’s military rise in the region, and in the face of rising tensions around Taiwan and between the Asian giant and Japan around disputed territories.
In the economic section, the Japanese leader plans to express his concern about China’s overproduction, in line with the conclusions adopted by the G7 economy and finance ministers in their meeting at the end of May.
Japan, like the United States and some European countries, has expressed concern about the large-scale subsidies and tax advantages offered by Beijing to sectors such as motoring and solar energy, which in their opinion generates overcapacity in production and distorts competition in international markets.
Tokyo, Washington and the European Union are in favor of expressing their firm opposition to these economic practices of China in the document adopted at the end of the meeting, although other members of the G7, such as France and Germany, prefer to maintain a more cautious stance towards Beijing, according to diplomatic sources.
Likewise, both at the Puglia summit and at the Swiss meeting on Ukraine, Kishida will show Japan’s “firm support” for Kyiv and a willingness to maintain this position as well as sanctions on Moscow in coordination with the G7 and the rest of the international community, according to the Japanese leader.
In both meetings, he will present Japan’s commitment to financially support Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts, which includes agricultural projects and landmine removal initiatives.
Japan does not currently offer military aid to Ukraine because its regulations prevent it from exporting this type of equipment to other countries, although at the end of last year it relaxed those rules to be able to transfer certain finished defense products under license from companies in allied countries.
In Italy, Kishida also plans to hold bilateral meetings with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, who has just begun his third consecutive term and has also been invited by the Italian presidency, as well as with the Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In Switzerland, Kishida plans to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he invited to the last G7 summit in Hiroshima last year. EFE
ahg-yk/tw
