Japan to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday that his country will participate in providing Ukraine with security guarantees to deter Russia from launching another invasion.
"We'll thoroughly discuss what our nation can and should do, including from the perspectives of laws and capabilities, and play an appropriate role," Ishiba told reporters at the prime minister's office in Tokyo.
The prime minister made the remarks after US President Donald Trump mentioned such security guarantees at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders backing Ukraine in Washington on Monday. According to Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated his willingness to agree to security guarantees for Ukraine.
According to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who attended the meeting, 30 countries, including Japan, will be involved in offering security guarantees.
Ishiba did not specify how Japan will participate, saying, "We're not in the phase where we can provide details."
"The important thing is to achieve an early ceasefire and a just peace," he stressed.
The prime minister has repeatedly said that security in the Euro-Atlantic region is inseparable from that in the Indo-Pacific region, in a bid to warn against China's attempts to unilaterally change the status quo in the East and South China seas.
A Japanese government source said, "It's important to be actively involved in what we can, so that we can receive support if something happens to Japan."
Japan has provided Ukraine with exclusively nonmilitary support, due to its constitutional constraints. Its future support is expected to focus on postwar reconstruction.
"We'll support Ukraine as much as possible, but it's impossible to offer personnel contributions," said a senior official at the prime minister's office.
"We can't do anything militarily," a senior Foreign Ministry official said. "We'll likely give financial support."
A formal agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine is expected to be concluded among the involved countries soon. After that, the Japanese government is expected to begin considering its possible contributions in earnest. "For now, we need to wait and see," said a source close to the prime minister.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
