Japan To Provide $5.5Bln In Aid To Ukraine - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to provide Kiev with $5.5 billion in financial aid ahead of the upcoming first anniversary of the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Monday .

Earlier in the day, Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi attended the 4th Tokyo Global Dialogue, organized by the Japan Institute of International Affairs, on the end of the "post-Cold War" era and the future of the US-led international order.

"In his greeting, Prime Minister Kishida suggested that Japan, chairing the G7 and serving as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, should lead on such issues facing the global community as helping Ukraine fight Russian invasion, working to preserve a world order based on the rule of law that rejects changing the status quo unilaterally by force, further reducing nuclear weapons .

.. In this regard, Prime Minister Kishida expressed his intention to provide new additional financial aid to Ukraine in the amount of $5.5 billion," the statement read.

Kishida noted that the G7 leaders would continue to be united on the Ukrainian crisis, and would hold their G7 video summit, joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on February 24, one year after Russia started its special military operation in Ukraine, according to the statement.

This year, the G7 presidency is assumed by Japan. Its key summit will be the first one hosted by Kishida. The summit will take place over three days from May 19 in the city of Hiroshima, the prime minister's constituency, which was devastated by a US atomic bomb in August 1945, with Kishida planning to draw attention to the security issues surrounding nuclear weapons.