TOKYO, February 10. /TASS/. The Japanese government may misjudge the situation around Ukraine because of US influence on Tokyo's diplomatic and security policy, ex-Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told TASS on Thursday.
"The current Japanese government has always been extremely subservient to the US position as far as diplomacy and security are concerned. In this regard, the government does not necessarily have the right understanding of the problems between Ukraine and Russia," he noted.
Hatoyama supported the idea that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should have ceased to exist after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. "As a result of its eastward expansion, NATO became a threat to Russian peace, even though the Cold War had ended. If NATO expands further eastward and eventually Ukraine joins the alliance, it will be a big threat to Russia," he pointed out.
According to Hatoyama, the US is currently provoking world leaders by talking about a hypothetical Russian invasion of Ukraine. "I think it is important to maintain peace between Russia and Europe without expanding NATO eastward," the former prime minister said.
Speaking about the impact of the current deterioration of US-Russian relations on the negotiations for a peace agreement between Moscow and Tokyo, Hatoyama stressed that no progress on the issue could be expected now. "With the US and Russia confronting each other, Japan now finds itself in a situation where it supports America's position. Naturally, discussions on the problems of Japan and Russia, including on the so-called territorial dispute, have reached a dead end, and progress cannot be expected. I think it's going in an undesirable direction," he emphasized.
Yukio Hatoyama met with Russian Ambassador Mikhail Galuzin in Tokyo on Thursday. The Russian diplomat congratulated the prime minister on his upcoming 75th birthday on February 11 from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chairman of the Russian Historical Society and Director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin. Galuzin and Hatoyama then discussed several issues concerning Russian-Japanese relations, as well as the situation around Ukraine.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden during the January 21 online talks decided "to continue close cooperation aimed at preventing a Russian invasion of Ukraine". The Japanese prime minister also stressed that both leaders confirmed that the US, together with its partners and allies, would continue to work together to "meet any aggression [against Ukraine] with strong action."
Saga around Ukraine
Concerns over Moscow's alleged preparations for an ‘invasion of Ukraine’ have been increasingly echoed throughout the West and in Kiev recently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these statements as an ‘empty and groundless’ escalation of tension, emphasizing that Russia posed no threat to anyone. At the same time, the Kremlin press secretary did not exclude some possible provocations to justify such claims and warned that any attempts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict by force would carry extremely serious consequences.