TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio said Friday he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to explore a solution to issues over Ukraine through diplomacy, not the use of force, in their phone talks a day before.

“I urged him directly to pursue a solution that is acceptable to concerned nations through diplomatic negotiations, not a unilateral change to the status quo by force,” Kishida said at a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament.

Also at the parliamentary meeting, former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said Japan should encourage the United States to return to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade framework.

“It’s desirable for the United States to return to the TPP from the strategic perspective of engaging in the international order in the Indo-Pacific region,” Kishida said, adding that he made such a request when he spoke with US President Joe Biden last month in a videoconference.

Earlier this month, the government effectively sacked Toshihiko Fujii as the head of the planning office for an envisaged law on promoting economic security, a key piece of legislation pushed by Kishida’s administration.

At the Lower House meeting, Chief Cabinet Secretary MATSUNO Hirokazu denied that the removal of Fujii will have any impact on the fate of the legislation, which the government plans to submit to parliament later this month.

JIJI Press