MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - Japanese authorities will take into account the position of the G7 countries on the issue of sanctions against Russia, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday.
“As a member of the G7, we will be taking appropriate measures, paying considerable attention toward cooperating [with the other G7 countries],” Kyodo News quoted Kishida as saying at a press conference in Tokyo.
Since the beginning of crisis in Ukraine, Japan has attempted to balance between the need to support the decisions of the Group of Seven to some degree with an unwillingness to spoil relations with Russia, which have been warming over the last year. On August 5 the Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a list of 40 individuals and two organizations subject to government-approved sanctions against Russia resulting from the situation in Ukraine. The first two rounds of sanctions had been introduced this spring.
The head of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy has recently confirmed that a new round of EU sanctions against Russia will enter into force September 12. As reported, the new measures are designed to expand on previously adopted sanctions, and will affect access to capital markets, the defense sector, dual-use goods and sensitive technologies.
US president Barack Obama said on Thursday that new sanctions against Russia would be announced on Friday, but White House representatives have refused to expand on the details of the new measures.
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated in connection with the conflict in Ukraine. In late July, the EU and the US switched from targeted sanctions against individuals and companies to measures against entire sectors of the Russian economy. In response Russia has restricted the import of food products from countries that have imposed sanctions against it: the US, members of the EU, Canada, Australia and Norway. The countersanctions include beef, pork and poultry products, fish, vegetables, fruits, milk products and a range of other food goods.
