As Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday in a surprise visit to the war-torn country, a kind of reverse-mirror image summit ¡ª one involving the Chinese and Russian leaders on the conflict¡¯s other side ¡ª was also unfolding more than 740 kilometers away in Moscow.
Although the two competing summits yielded few deliverables, their symbolism threw into fresh relief a growing divide between two blocs, especially as the Ukraine war continues to trigger concern among Japan and others that a similar crisis could erupt in the Indo-Pacific region.
Kishida, who will chair a Group of Seven (G7) summit in the city of Hiroshima in May, used the Kyiv meeting to not only spotlight Japan¡¯s diplomatic chops as the sole Asian leader to visit Ukraine, but also to obliquely criticize and highlight China over its backing of Moscow and the regional consequences of that decision.
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