India allows Japan commercial plane to pick up Ukraine relief

Wednesday 27th April 2022 07:35 EDT
 

India was reported to have denied permission to a Japanese military aircraft to pick up relief supplies from a UNHCR depot in India even as it said it had allowed the same by commercial Japanese aircraft.
The government said it had also approved overflight clearance for a Japanese defence aircraft carrying humanitarian cargo for Ukraine. After Japanese media quoted a local lawmaker to say India had denied landing permission for a military relief aircraft, the MEA said Japan’s request for picking up supplies using a commercial aircraft was approved. “We had received a request from Japan for permission to land in Mumbai to pick up humanitarian supplies from UNHCR depot for Ukraine and its neighbouring countries. We have conveyed our approval for picking of such supplies from India using commercial aircraft,’’ said spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.
“We had also received a request for overflight clearance for Japanese SDF aircraft carrying humanitarian cargo for Ukraine. This was processed and approved as per established norms,” added the official.
The official was responding to reports from Tokyo that India had denied a Japanese Self-Defence Force aircraft to land in the country. The flight, apparently a C-2 transport aircraft of the Japanese military, was meant to pick up relief supplies from India and deliver it to Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Romania. According to Kyodo News, a Japanese government official said at a Liberal Democratic Party meeting that India had agreed at a working level to allow the transport plane to land, but “it suddenly withdrew its consent”.
The report quoted a lawmaker to say that “some of those at the LDP policy meeting accused the government of failing to take into account the possibility that India, which is highly dependent on Russian military and energy supplies, could reject the plan”.
While India is yet to condemn Russia’s actions, Japan has imposed sanctions on Russia and earlier this week revoked Russia’s most favoured nation status. Japanese PM Fumio Kishida had raised the Ukraine issue in his recent meeting with PM Modi.


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