Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Thursday called for global efforts to make Russia withdraw from Ukraine, saying a "terrible precedent" should not be established after nearly a year of war in the country.
"Imagine yourself. What if one permanent member of the Security Council would launch an aggression against your homeland, grab your territory, and then cease hostilities, calling for peace. I would call it an unjust peace," Hayashi told a U.N. General Assembly emergency session on the Ukraine war.
"It would be a victory for the aggressor if such actions were tolerated. It would set a terrible precedent for the rest of the planet," Hayashi said at the U.N. headquarters in New York, a day before the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.
The two-day special General Assembly session from Wednesday has been convened to take a vote on a resolution demanding Moscow immediately and unconditionally pull out its forces from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine.
Hayashi asked the rest of the assembly's 193 members to favor the resolution co-sponsored by Japan and Western countries. The legally nonbinding motion would put more pressure on Russia if adopted.
Russia is one of the veto-holding five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council along with the United States, Britain, China and France. The council, in charge of ensuring international peace and security, has been widely viewed as dysfunctional in addressing the war in Ukraine due largely to Moscow's veto power.
Referring to past U.N. General Assembly resolutions and an order by the International Court of Justice in March that made similar demands to Russia, Hayashi condemned Russia for neglecting them "as if they were just pieces of waste paper."
The top Japanese diplomat also said other nations should "refrain from supporting the aggression either directly or indirectly," bearing in mind nations such as Russian ally Belarus, and apparently China amid a U.S. allegation that Beijing is considering supplying weapons to Moscow.
As for Russian President Vladimir Putin's blackmail of possible nuclear use in its former Soviet neighbor, Hayashi condemned Moscow as it "abuses" its status as a nuclear power "with its irresponsible rhetoric."
"Russia's nuclear threat, let alone any use of its nuclear weapons, shall never be tolerated," he added.
Hayashi stressed that Tokyo will continue to support Kyiv, and underscored the necessity of reforms of the Security Council and other U.N. bodies, saying that the "damaged" United Nations is "now being tested."
During his three-day stay in New York from Wednesday, Hayashi is slated to attend a ministerial gathering of the U.N. Security Council on Friday.
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