Japan to consider Poland aid recipient amid Ukraine war

Warsaw, Mar 22 (EFE).- Poland will be treated by Japan due to the war in Ukraine as a country entitled to receive development aid, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in his Wednesday visit to Warsaw.

“Due to the increasing burden on Poland caused by the persistent Russian aggression in Ukraine, I have informed the Polish Prime Minister (Mateusz Morawiecki) that we have made the decision to treat Poland as a special recipient of development aid, despite the fact that the economy Poland is growing and Poland is not a country that receives development aid,” he said at a press conference.

Kishida, whose country currently chairs the G7 group – also made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States – said Poland is on the front line and supplies Ukraine with both military and humanitarian aid.

Kishida is in Poland after his unannounced Tuesday visit to Ukraine, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Kishida’s visit to Ukraine, the most recent by a leader of one of the G7 countries, coincides with Chinese President Xi Jingping’s visit to Moscow, where he discussed his proposal with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

Kishida said Japan, as the leader this year of the group of seven most industrialized countries, would continue its cooperation with Ukraine and the international community to support Kiev.

Right after the start of the war in Ukraine, Japan sided with Ukraine and provided humanitarian aid, as well as joining economic sanctions imposed on Russia.

Although Japanese law prohibits the shipment of weapons to other countries, Japan supplied Ukraine with helmets and personal protective equipment. EFE

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