Japan's Kishida Calls Decision To Abandon Russian Oil Painful, Yet Says G7 Unity Prevails

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th May, 2022) Japan has made a "hard decision" to bar imports of Russian oil because G7 unanimity "matters most," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Monday.

"Overnight I participated in a video conference with leaders of the Group of Seven. With the leaders of G7 and (Ukrainian) President Volodymyr Zelenskyy we held a straightforward exchange of view and once again reiterated G7 solidarity with Ukraine. Considering oil, for our country heavily dependent on energy imports, this was a hard decision, but now it is the time when G7 cohesion matters most. Taking into account the G7 leaders' statement, we ruled basically to ban imports of Russian oil," Kishida told a briefing following the G7 meeting.

At the same time, the prime minister reiterated Japan's commitment to preserve its shares in Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects on extracting natural gas and oil, while signaling that Tokyo is intending to phase out oil imports on projects in which it has stakes as well.

"As for oil imports from our country's share (in the Russian projects), bearing in mind that they contribute to a durable, low-cost and steady supply of energy, we will be scaling it down gradually to minimize the damaging effects on the people's lives and business activity," Kishida added.

On Sunday, G7 leaders met virtually to deliberate on the latest developments in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy also joining the meeting. According to the statement issued after the talks, the G7 states pledged to "continue to impose severe and immediate economic costs" on Russia for its military operation in Ukraine by curtailing their dependency on Russian energy through "phasing out or banning the import of Russian oil." G7 has also upheld its commitment to "reinforce Russia's isolation across all sectors of its economy" by targeting Russian banks and cutting the country off from the "key services on which Russia depends."