NATO will continue to strengthen its partnership with Japan during the war in Ukraine, said the NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg during a visit to Japan, where he will meet the prime minister Fumio Kishida.
"The war in Ukraine is important for all of us, we are very grateful for the support Japan is providing, thanks to the cargo planes made available“said Stoltenberg from Japan's Iruma Air Base.
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His tour, which also saw him in South Korea, aims to strengthen ties with Western allies in Asia in the face of war in Ukraine and growing competition with China.
Speaking in Seoul on Monday, Stoltenberg urged the South Korea to increase its military support to Ukraine by supplying ammunition, citing other countries that changed their policy of not supplying arms to countries in conflict following Russia's invasion.
Hungary and Austria: no weapons to Ukraine
Hungary and Austria will not send weapons to Ukraine and would like to prevent the ongoing conflict from escalating, the Hungarian defense minister said, Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky, after talks with his Austrian counterpart Claudia Tanner in Budapest.
According to Tass reports, “Hungary's position is clear: we do not ship weapons to the conflict area, because we want to avoid its escalation, and our position coincides with that of Austria"he said Szalay-Bobrovniczky, underlining that the two ministers discussed the situation in Ukraine. “Even Austria, which is neutral, does not ship arms where hostilities are taking place.".
For his part, Tanner said he sees the risk of the Ukrainian conflict spilling over into Europe as the greatest danger: “We are not only talking about conventional warfare, but also about non-traditional threats, such as the growth of migration, due to war”.
Poland willing to send F-16s to Kiev
Poland is open to supplying F-16 fighters, he said Andriy Yermak, the senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Yermak said Ukraine had had "positive signals" from Warsaw in a Telegram post, though the Polish prime minister was careful to point out that his The country would have acted only in consultation with NATO allies.
"We coordinate all actions aimed at strengthening the defense forces of Ukraine with our NATO partners"He said Mateusz Morawiecki in the press conference where he announced plans to increase his defense spending Country at 4% of GDP, when asked about jets.
Washington against sending fighter jets
The US president Joe Biden he answered "no" today when asked at a press conference if the United States would supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Last week Bidena announced the decision to send 31 Abrams tanks to the country. Shortly after that announcement, Yuriy Sak, adviser to the Ukrainian defense secretary, said he was optimistic about the possibility of receiving Western fighter jets, such as the American F-16s.
Macron "doesn't rule out anything" on sending hunts
"Nothing is excluded in principle” is instead the answer of the French president Emmanuel Macron, to a question about sending fighter planes to Kiev. Macron stressed however that any decision assumes certain "criteria": a "demand formulated" by Ukraine, which "is not such as to produce an escalation", nor aimed "at hitting Russian territory but rather at supporting the resistance effort" . However, "that does not weaken the capacity of the French armed forces".