政府、ロシアへの特使に否定的　野党は安倍氏ら派遣求める

　林芳正外相は８日の参院外交防衛委員会で、ウクライナ侵攻を続けるロシアに停戦を求めるため政府特使を派遣することに否定的な見解を示した。立憲民主党の羽田次郎氏が、首相在任中にプーチン大統領と個人的な関係を築いたとされる安倍晋三元首相らの派遣の検討を迫ったが、林氏は「現時点で特使を派遣する考えはない」と語った。
　羽田氏は、トルコのエルドアン大統領や中国の王毅外相がロシアとウクライナの仲介に動きだしたことを挙げ、「積極外交を行う日本の姿がなかなか見えてこない」と指摘。岸田文雄首相らがプーチン氏と直談判を行うべきだと主張した。林氏は「Ｇ７（先進７カ国）をはじめとする国際社会と連携し、有効と考えられる取り組みを適切に検討していきたい」と述べるにとどめた。（2022/03/08-16:15）

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday sounded negative about an idea to send a special government envoy to Russia to call on the country to stop its invasion of Ukraine.
   "We don't have a plan to send a special envoy at the moment," Hayashi told a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament.
   Hayashi made the remark after being pressed by an opposition lawmaker to consider sending as a special envoy former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is said to have built a personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was in office.
   Noting that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have started moves to mediate between Russia and Ukraine for ceasefire, the lawmaker, Jiro Hata of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said that the Japanese government has failed to engage in active diplomacy. Hata also urged Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials to talk directly with Putin.
   But Hayashi said only that Japan will appropriately consider measures that are deemed effective while working with the international community, including other Group of Seven nations.