The New Europe Center held the Third Ukraine-Japan Forum

28th of February, 2023, the New Europe Center held the Third Ukraine-Japan Forum “Responsible partnership. Ukraine and Japan in the context of Russia’s war”. During the event, analysts and academics from Japan and Ukraine discussed issues related to the broader security environment in which both countries are operating today, as well as bilateral relations in the context of the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.

Namely, the discussion panels were devoted to the following issues:

No space for neutrality. How the response of the democratic world on Russia’s war is seen from Ukraine, Europe, US and Japan;
Confronting Putin – deterring Xi. How to deal with China’s long term threats in Asia and Indo-Pacific?;
New start for Ukraine and Japan. How Russia’s war is reshaping bilateral relations between two countries and adjusting their priorities.

Also, during the Forum, the discussion paper “Responsible Partnership. How Russian war can reshape Ukraine-Japan relations” prepared based on the results of an advocacy visit of the New Europe Center experts to Japan, was presented.

Some key points from speakers:

Alyona Getmanchuk: Ukraine’s victory is an investment not only in the security of Europe but also in the security of Japan, that is why Japan believes in the victory of Ukraine.
Leo Litra: Ukraine has strong transatlantic support & a very serious stronghold in Asia – Japan! Tokyo has been greatly aligned with the policy of the West, except in terms of military support. Yet, Japan has so many other instruments to help, including sanctions, financial & G7 support!
Sergiy Korsunsky: Only two countries know what nuclear catastrophe is. Japan survived it, Ukraine is threatened by it. It is important to transform this topic into a format in which we can protect the future of humanity from a nuclear catastrophe.
Matsuda Kuninori: The G7 presidency means a lot. It’s not only helping Ukraine to win this war, but we should remember what kind of Ukraine we’d like to see and why we are helping Ukraine. This is a reason why G7, together with Ukrainian partners, even under the war, continue to be actively engaged in reform agendas, such as judicial reforms, corporate governance, and the fight against corruption.
Ihor Zhovkva: Ukraine-Japan partnership is taking on new velocities during the war. Today Ukraine is living much faster than most of the world and we want other countries to live at least half as fast as Ukraine. I’m sure Japan is living at almost the same speed as Ukraine.
Gustav Gressel: One cannot supply Ukraine for years from existing stocks, they are basically empty. New defence industrial production will become a cornerstone of military assistance to Ukraine. The problem – Europeans don’t yet have a common strategy for sharing the burden of supplying Ukraine.
Atsuko Higashino: Ukraine wasn’t really changed by the position of Japan, it’s Ukraine who changes Japan in a very serious way! The Japanese impact on Ukraine wasn’t really huge because we cannot really assist Ukraine in terms of weapons delivery because of the various restrictions from our side.
Michito Tsuruoka: China may annex Taiwan sooner or later, so we have to send China a strong and clear message that Xi Jinping cannot achieve its goal by using military forces. The strongest message is to make Putin fail to achieve his goal.
Roland Freudenstein: For China, a weakened Russia is okay since in such a situation it will be easier for China to deal with this junior partner. Yet, China’s interest is that Russia must not lose this war, because the victory of Ukraine would be a blow to authoritarian states globally.