China concerns at forefront of Japanese PM Kishida’s diplomatic activism ahead of G7 summit, pundits say

Name: Japan’s leader makes history with unannounced visit to Ukraine in show of solidarity
Uploaded: 2023-03-26T15:00:16.000Z
Duration: 3 min 20 s
Description: Japan’s leader makes history with unannounced visit to Ukraine in show of solidarity

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s trip to Kyiv follows close on the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival in Moscow

In addition to the other G7 leaders, Japan has also invited the leaders of India, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil to summit in Hiroshima

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits the Wall of Remembrance in Kyiv to pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed during the Russian invasion. Photo: Handout via Reuters

Shi Jiangtao

Published: 11:00pm, 26 Mar 2023Updated: 11:22pm, 26 Mar 2023

The strengthening of China-Russia ties has accelerated a geopolitical realignment in the Indo-Pacific region, with Japan in diplomatic overdrive – largely focused on Beijing – as it prepares to host the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima in May.

In the week following a breakthrough summit meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Tokyo on March 16, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise trip to Kyiv – after holding talks with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and unveiling Japan’s new Indo-Pacific strategy in New Delhi.

Pundits said the China factor, which had loomed large in the strategic regrouping of regional powers in recent months, was the most important driving force behind Kishida’s diplomatic activism.

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Japan’s leader makes history with unannounced visit to Ukraine in show of solidarity

The Japanese leader had been focused on mobilising Japan’s allies, including the United States, to prevent a military conflict with the Chinese near Taiwan and in the East China Sea, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international affairs at Beijing’s Renmin University.

Initially viewed as a China dove by Beijing, Kishida had taken “a series of major, specific and sometimes aggressive, steps in a bid to fend off the perceived threats from China”, including his surprise visit to Ukraine, Shi said.

Kishida’s unannounced trip to Kyiv on Tuesday, which made him the last G7 leader to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion, came just hours after President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow for a three-day state visit.

“Apart from offering Japan’s support, it was a reminder to Ukraine and its Western backers of an assertion that Kishida has been advocating since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine,” Shi said. “That is, what is happening now in Ukraine is likely to happen tomorrow in the western Pacific and the East China Sea.”