Japan’s leader visits Kyiv while China’s president is being feted in Moscow

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida began a surprise visit to Ukraine early Tuesday, hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in neighboring Russia for a three-day visit. The dueling summits come as the longtime Asian rivals are on diplomatic offensives.

Kishida will meet President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Ukrainian capital.

He will “show respect to the courage and patience of the Ukrainian people who are standing up to defend their homeland under President Zelensky’s leadership, and show solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine as head of Japan and chairman of G-7” during his visit to Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in announcing Kishida’s trip to Kyiv.

At the talks, Kishida will show his “absolute rejection of Russia’s one-sided change to the status quo by invasion and force, and to affirm his commitment to defend the rules-based international order,” the ministry’s statement said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warmly welcomed Xi to the Kremlin on Monday on a visit both nations describe as an opportunity to deepen their “no-limits friendship.”

Japanese public television channel NTV showed Kishida riding a train from Poland heading to Kyiv. His surprise trip to Ukraine comes just hours after he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, and a week after a breakthrough summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yoel.

In New Delhi, Kishida called on developing countries to raise their voices to defend the rules-based international order and help stop Russia’s war.

Japan, which has territorial disputes over islands with both China and Russia, is particularly concerned about the close relationship between Beijing and Moscow, which have conducted joint military exercises near Japan’s coasts.

Kishida, who is to chair the Group of 7 summit in May, is the only G-7 leader who hasn’t visited Ukraine and was under pressure to do so at home. President Biden took a similar route to visit Kyiv last month, just before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kishida’s trip was arranged secretly. He is Japan’s first postwar leader to enter a war zone. Kishida, invited by Zelensky in January to visit Kyiv, was asked before his trip to India about a rumor of a possible trip to Ukraine at the end of March, but he denied it and said nothing concrete had been decided.

Japan has joined the U.S. and European nations in sanctioning Russia over its invasion and providing humanitarian and economic support for Ukraine.

Japan was quick to react because it fears the possible impact of a war in East Asia, where China’s military has grown increasingly assertive and has escalated tensions over self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that China’s contacts with Russia would help bring about peace. “President Putin said that Russia appreciates China’s consistent position of upholding fairness, objectivity and balance on major international issues,” he said. “Russia has carefully studied China’s position paper on the political settlement of the Ukrainian issue, and is open to peace talks.”

Asked about Kishida’s trip to Kyiv, Wang added: “We hope Japan could do more things to de-escalate the situation instead of the opposite.”

Kishida is expected to offer continuing support for Ukraine when he meets with Zelensky.

Television footage on NTV showed Kishida getting on a train from the Polish station of Przemysl near the border with Ukraine, with a number of officials.

Because of the country’s pacifist principles, Japan’s support for Ukraine has been limited to non-combat military equipment such as helmets, bulletproof vests and drones, and humanitarian supplies including generators.

Japan has contributed more than $7 billion to Ukraine, and accepted more than 2,000 displaced Ukrainians and helped them with housing assistance and support for jobs and education, a rare move in a country that is known for its strict immigration policy.