HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday spoke with Vietnamese leaders about the war in Ukraine, saying they agreed on respecting international law and opposing the use of force.
Japan has condemned the Russian invasion and joined Western nations in imposing sanctions on Moscow. Like most other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam has avoided directly criticizing Russia and has called for restraint, compliance with the UN Charter and dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Vietnam abstained from a vote at the UN General Assembly in March deploring the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Vietnam is one of Moscow’s historic allies, and Vietnam’s military is mostly armed with Russian weapons. It also has close ties with Ukraine, where about 10,000 Vietnamese live, work and study. In recent years, Vietnam has forged closer ties with the United States to counter China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea.
“We cannot accept the measures to change the status quo by force in any region of the world,” Kishida said after talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh.
Kishida also criticized China’s actions in the South China Sea, where Beijing has built artificial islands and turned them into military outposts to bolster its territorial claims, which have been rejected by its smaller neighbors.