Briefly

JAPAN

Kishida will be first PM to attend NATO summit

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday that he will attend this month's NATO summit in Madrid, becoming the country's first leader to join a top meeting of the trans-Atlantic alliance. Sweden and Finland, which have applied to join NATO, are sending delegations to the summit, and South Korea's new President Yoon Suk-yeol will also be the first leader from his country to attend. Japan, a key ally of the United States and not a NATO member, has delivered defensive supplies to Ukraine and imposed tough sanctions on Russia in tandem with the other G7 countries over the conflict in Ukraine.

EUROPEAN UNION

Action mulled against UK over post-Brexit changes

The European Union was launching legal action against the United Kingdom in response to Britain's unilateral moves to rip up parts of the post-Brexit deal between both sides, officials said on Wednesday. But the European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, insisted it remained open to finding a joint solution outside the courts. The proposed UK bill seeks to remove customs checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. That will override parts of the trade treaty that Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed with the EU less than two years ago.

Agencies via Xinhua