Japanese PM to address Congress amid stalled US support

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will head to Capitol Hill on Thursday for an address to US lawmakers meant to underscore the importance of keeping a strong partnership between the two countries at a time of tension in the Asia-Pacific and skepticism in Congress about US involvement abroad.

Kishida was in Washington this week visiting President Joe Biden as the White House completed hosting each leader of the Quad — an informal partnership between the US Japan, Australia and India that is seen as important to countering China’s growing military strength in the region. Kishida is expected to talk about the future of the relationship between Japan and the US.

He will be addressing many Republicans who have pushed for the US to take a less active role in global affairs as they follow the “America First” ethos of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. 

The Republican-controlled House has sat for months on a $95 billion package that would send wartime funding to Ukraine and Israel, as well as aid to allies in the Indo-Pacific like Taiwan and humanitarian help to civilians in Gaza and Ukraine.

Japan has taken a strong role in supporting Ukraine’s defence against Moscow as well as helping humanitarian aid get to Gaza. It is also seen as a key US partner in a fraught region where China is asserting its strength and North Korea is developing a nuclear programme.

Switzerland to host Ukraine peace conference without Russia

Switzerland’s government said on Wednesday it will host a high-level international conference in June to help chart a path toward peace in Ukraine after more than two years of war, and expressed hope that Russia might join in the peace process someday.

The conference will take place 15-16 June, gathering top government officials from dozens of countries, following up on a plan laid out in recent months by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.

China, a Moscow ally, has said it will consider taking part. The country laid out a 12-point peace plan to end the war last year, but received a lukewarm reception from both Russia and Ukraine.

More than 100 countries will be invited to the gathering.

“The first country that we spoke with, after Ukraine of course, was Russia, because a peace process cannot happen without Russia, even if it won’t be there for the first meeting” Foreign Minister Cassis told reporters in the Swiss capital, Bern.

Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that President Joe Biden may attend.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned last week prospective negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine could be successful only if they take Moscow’s interests into account, dismissing a planned round of peace talks as a Western ruse to rally broader international support for Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there will be no peace in Ukraine until Russia’s goals are met.

Russia puts more Kremlin critics on a wanted list

Russian authorities have put more Kremlin critics on a wanted list as its crackdown against dissent reaches unprecedented levels since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine more than two years ago.

Independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported Tuesday that it found women’s rights activist Darya Serenko and prominent journalist and author Mikhail Zygar in the Interior Ministry’s database of individuals wanted on criminal charges. The entries don’t specify the charges or when they were added to the list.

Both Serenko and Zygar have long left Russia.

The Kremlin’s crackdown against opposition activists, independent journalists and government critics has intensified during the war. Hundreds have faced criminal charges over protests and remarks condemning the war in Ukraine, and thousands have been fined or briefly jailed.

Serenko, a longtime activist and author, co-founded the Feminist Anti-War Resistance group shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and moved to Georgia during the crackdown. 

Zygar, an author and a founding editor in chief of Russia’s independent TV channel Dozhd, also left Russia after the invasion and was declared a “foreign agent.”