Japan to Send Official to Ukraine Truce-Monitoring Mission

Tokyo, July 30 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Foreign Ministry said Thursday it will have an official take part in a special European mission to monitor the truce in eastern Ukraine. The Japanese embassy in Ukraine will assign one of its officials to join the mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe based on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pledge made to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during Abe's visit to the East European nation in June, the ministry said. The OSCE team is tasked to observe and report truce-related developments such as withdrawal of heavy artillery from the front line. Japan is the first partner country for the 57-nation OSCE to send personnel to the special monitoring team. END