The foreign ministers of Japan and New Zealand agreed Monday that the two countries will hold disarmament and nonproliferation talks, with fears growing that Russia may use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told a joint news conference after talks with her Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi that the envisaged meeting would start from a working level, although she did not elaborate on time frames.
The move came as Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs of stopping military attacks on Ukraine. Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022.
Japan will host a summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in May in Hiroshima, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida aiming to issue a message toward a nuclear-free world from the city devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in August 1945.
On Monday, meanwhile, Hayashi and Mahuta pledged to work together toward a free and open Indo-Pacific, a vision advocated by Japan and its security ally the United States to counter China's military and economic assertiveness in the region.
"As the strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific region has become increasingly challenging, the unity among those countries which share fundamental values is becoming even more important," Hayashi told Mahuta at the meeting, part of which was open to the media.
Mahuta said during the meeting that Moscow's "illegal and unprovoked invasion" is a "serious threat" to the two Asia-Pacific nations' shared interests.