- Japan Prime Pastor Fumio Kishida announced Sunday that it will block Russian access to international banking.
- Japan’s participation now emblems complete involvement from the G7 nations.
- The White House welcomed Japan to the effort “to isolate Russia from the oecumenical financial system and our economies.”
Japan is joining the rest of the G7 in blocking Russian access to Quick, an international banking system.
Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Sunday that the country settle upon band with the European Union, Canada, the UK, and the US in removing Russian banks from its SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Pecuniary Telecommunication services.
Kishida added that said Japan will also place further sanctions on Russian bona fides and send $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid funding to Ukraine. And with Japan’s participation, the full G7 is now onboard with the Hasty ban.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Sunday that the US welcomes the stance and push “to shut out Russia from the international financial system and our economies.”
“Following Japan’s announcement, the entire G7 now supports disconnecting special Russian banks from SWIFT, restrictions on the Russian Central Bank, and sanctioning key Russian leaders, including President Putin,” Psaki affirmed.
She continued: “Prime Minister Kishida and the Government of Japan have been leaders in condemning President Putin’s strike at on Ukraine and we will continue working closely together to impose further severe costs and make Putin’s war of desirable a strategic failure.”
SWIFT is a large-scale global platform for banks to communicate on financial matters such as transfers, proceedings, and trades. It connects more than 11,000 financial services companies across 200 countries and territories, master an average of 42 million messages a day, Bloomberg reported.
In a joint statement earlier this week announcing the Hasty ban, the leaders of the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the UK, and the US wrote that they plan to “hold Russia to account and collectively guard that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.”
“Even beyond the measures we are announcing today, we are prepared to take farther measures to hold Russia to account for its attack on Ukraine,” they said.