MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. Tokyo’s talk about joining the US’ nuclear missions could push the situation in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) to a very dangerous line, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing.
"On our part, we are closely following the discussions on the issue of Japan potentially joining American nuclear missions. This approach from official Tokyo, which, apparently, forgot both its pacifist postulates and anti-nuclear principles, without any doubt, is capable of pushing the whole Asia-Pacific region to a dangerous brink," she said.
The diplomat also highlighted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s recent US visit. "Even though this visit did not teach us anything new, it was yet again accompanied by anti-Russian outbursts, above all, on the part of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida," she said.
According to the diplomat, these remarks were aimed at the Japanese people themselves. "The thing is that according to polls by Japanese news outlets, the premier’s approval rating has plummeted below 20%. There is almost nowhere left to go, and, apparently, the Japanese administration is seeking ways to resolve the domestic problems that have piled up in this trite manner: by going to their overseas masters hoping to score points on anti-Russian and anti-Chinese rhetoric," she noted.
Misinformation on global scale
Zakharova also noted Kishida’s speech at the US Congress. "He made offensive remarks about purported nuclear blackmail on the part of Russia. You know, this is not just an insult, this is misinformation on a global scale. This is not simply disengaged from reality, especially the clumsy attempts to draw some sort of parallels with the nuclear bombardments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is yet further appalling evidence of the Japanese authorities’ unwillingness to face the historical truth and to raise the issue of the perpetrators of the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki," she stressed.
Zakharova noted that it was "precisely this political servility and historical deafness from the current Japanese administration that was behind the low approval ratings."