Politics

Japan reaffirms willingness to maintain Russia sanctions

Tokyo, Aug 23 (EFE).- Japan on Tuesday reaffirmed its willingness to continue imposing sanctions on Russia in coordination with the Group of Seven (G7), six months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida conveyed his willingness to continue sanctions on Moscow in a meeting held Tuesday, in which some of the new ministers appointed during the recent cabinet reshuffle were present.

Government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference on Tuesday that the meeting was an opportunity to analyze the situation of the Ukraine war and the measures applied by Japan in coordination with the international community.

Japan’s new Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters that the war in Ukraine showed that there could be other attempts to change the status quo in the Indo-Pacific region by force.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, stressed for his part that Japan will continue to respond diplomatically to the Russian invasion while working to ensure the security of the Japanese people and territory in collaboration with its allies.

The Japanese prime minister also called on his cabinet members to continue efforts to ease the growing impact on consumers and businesses of rising energy and raw material costs stemming from the war in Ukraine.

In April, the Kishida administration approved a multi-million-dollar package of measures aimed at tackling imported inflation and which serves to finance specific initiatives such as subsidies for gasoline.

After the start of Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, Japan followed in the footsteps of the G7 and the European Union and imposed sanctions on Moscow.

These included freezing the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the exclusion of major Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system. EFE

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