What is the role of Japan and China in Russia’s war against Ukraine? Today, in the midst of the war, the New Europe Center presented two analytical commentaries on these topics. Ukrainian, Japanese and European experts took part in a closed friendly online discussions.

Presenting the commentary “Is China benefiting from the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war?” Leo Litra, a Senior Research Fellow at the New Europe Center, said:

– China has shown a certain distance from Russia, and is currently trying to pursue such a policy to maintain its neutrality. The main question now is whether China will want to help Russia avoid sanctions.

Takashi Hirano, head of the Japanese section of UKRINFORM, presented a commentary “How Japan perceives Russia`s war against Ukraine?” and noted:

– Japan is helping Ukraine much more than in 2014 and much more powerfully than we expected before the war. Japan has imposed very strong sanctions against Russia, similar to American and European ones.

During the events, participants also expressed some interesting thoughts:

• The case of Ukraine is a good experience for China. China is currently learning in Russia how not to wage war.
• Now China’s steps towards Russia will be very cautious. It is unlikely that China will openly help Russia, because the risks are too high.
• President Zelensky’s speech was a great success in Japan, and everyone listened to it, discussed it, and researched it.
• China has spent a lot of time focusing on its image, but now it is losing that image.
• After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Japanese PM claimed that Japan’s northern territories had been illegally occupied by Russia. The Japanese government has realized that it makes no sense to negotiate with Putin on the Northern Territories.

This online discussions was organized as a follow-up to the Second Ukraine-Japan International Forum, hosted by the New Europe Center on January 27, 2022. More about the forum here.