Russian, Japanese diplomats discuss preparations for Putin-Abe meeting

MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Russian and Japanese deputy foreign ministers Igor Morgulov and Takeo Mori have held consultations on the current issues of bilateral relations on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry informed. "The dialogue was dedicated to the discussion of several current issues of Russian-Japanese relations, including in the context of preparations for the upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on January 22, 2019," the document published by the Russian Foreign Ministry states. In November of last year, Putin and Abe came to an agreement to activate negotiations on the issue of the peace treaty during a meeting in Singapore. On December 1, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, both countries’ leaders announced the creation of a new peace treaty negotiations format, designating Russian and Japanese foreign ministers to oversee its work. The meeting of foreign ministers that took place on Monday in Moscow became the first one within the framework of the agreement between Putin and Abe. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese colleague Taro Kono held negotiations within the framework of the first round of the new format on the peace treaty. The Russian top diplomat noted that Moscow does not plan to discuss Russia’s sovereignty over the southern part of the Kuril Islands. The Japanese representatives stated that the work on signing a peace treaty continues. The Russian Foreign Ministry informed TASS that today’s expert meeting of both countries’ deputy foreign ministers, organized by the Japanese side, is not the next round of consultations within the format proposed by Putin and Abe. Read more