Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to reporters at the prime minister’s office on Sept. 19 before his departure to New York. (Koichi Ueda)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sept. 19 headed for New York where he will discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nuclear disarmament and other issues at the U.N General Assembly session and international meetings.

“We should expand on achievements at the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima and lead them to further discussions,” Kishida told reporters at the prime minister’s office before departing from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on a government aircraft.

At the U.N. General Assembly session, Kishida will speak in the General Debate in the morning of Sept. 20 Japan time and call for enhancing international cooperation and strengthening U.N. functions amid deepening divisions over the war in Ukraine.

Kishida will join a leaders’ meeting at the U.N. Security Council on the Ukraine situation, where he is expected to condemn Russia and emphasize that peace and security should be restored based on the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to attend this meeting.

Kishida told reporters that he may have a chance to chat with Zelenskyy in the corridor between meetings, although he does not expect to sit down for a meeting with him.

Kishida will also participate in an event that Japan will co-host with Australia and other countries to raise international interest concerning the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty as a step toward the goal of creating a world without nuclear weapons.

He will attend the SDG Summit, a meeting held every four years to check and accelerate countries’ progress toward the Social Development Goals, adopted by the United Nations.

In a communique adopted at the Hiroshima summit, G-7 leaders said, “We support Ukraine for as long as it takes in the face of Russia’s illegal war of aggression.”

They also said, “We strengthen disarmament and nonproliferation efforts toward the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons with undiminished security for all.”

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