ID :
27816
Sat, 11/01/2008 - 00:57
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/27816
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Russia`s Lavrov to visit Hakodate, Tokyo on Nov. 4-5
TOKYO, Oct. 31 Kyodo -
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday for talks with his Japanese counterpart on a longstanding territorial dispute and pressing international issues including the financial crisis, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said Friday.
Prior to his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone in Tokyo
on Wednesday, Lavrov will first arrive in Hakodate, Hokkaido, on Tuesday, the
city where Russia opened its first consulate in Japan 150 years ago, Hakodate
Mayor Masanori Nishio told a news conference earlier Friday.
The Russian foreign minister is scheduled to visit the former Russian
consulate, the Hakodate Russian Orthodox Church, and other places. He will also
attend an opening ceremony for a Russian Center, the first in Japan, at the Far
Eastern National University's Hakodate campus.
In Tokyo on Wednesday, Nakasone and Lavrov are expected to lay the groundwork
for a visit to Japan by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by the end of the
year and to seek progress in resolving the dispute over a set of Russian-held
islets north of Hokkaido, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the
Southern Kurils in Russia, Foreign Ministry sources said earlier.
In Moscow, Lavrov told reporters from Kyodo News and other media organizations
Friday that it is important for Japan and Russia to pay attention to the
potential for future cooperation rather than being preoccupied with issues to
do with the past.
Lavrov described ties between the two countries as a ''strategically important
relationship'' and said former Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir
Putin, who is currently prime minister, had repeatedly expressed Russia's
determination to resolve the territorial row.
But he also urged Japan to make concessions on the issue, saying, ''Every
problem requires compromise for a solution.''
In their meeting, Nakasone and Lavrov will also reaffirm cooperation ahead of a
summit of the world's 20 major nations on the global financial crisis in
Washington on Nov. 15 and coordinate measures on the North Korean
denuclearization issue, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry sources.
Other topics on the agenda include reconfirming bilateral efforts on the
development of oil and natural gas in Eastern Siberia and speeding up
negotiations toward the conclusion of a nuclear energy cooperation accord, they
said.
Lavrov's visit will come on the heels of a trip to Japan by Russian Minister of
Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko last week.
The series of visits by Putin, Lavrov and Khristenko this year, aimed at
boosting bilateral relations, were agreed by then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo
Fukuda and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when they met at the Group of
Eight summit in Japan in July.
==Kyodo
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday for talks with his Japanese counterpart on a longstanding territorial dispute and pressing international issues including the financial crisis, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said Friday.
Prior to his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone in Tokyo
on Wednesday, Lavrov will first arrive in Hakodate, Hokkaido, on Tuesday, the
city where Russia opened its first consulate in Japan 150 years ago, Hakodate
Mayor Masanori Nishio told a news conference earlier Friday.
The Russian foreign minister is scheduled to visit the former Russian
consulate, the Hakodate Russian Orthodox Church, and other places. He will also
attend an opening ceremony for a Russian Center, the first in Japan, at the Far
Eastern National University's Hakodate campus.
In Tokyo on Wednesday, Nakasone and Lavrov are expected to lay the groundwork
for a visit to Japan by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by the end of the
year and to seek progress in resolving the dispute over a set of Russian-held
islets north of Hokkaido, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the
Southern Kurils in Russia, Foreign Ministry sources said earlier.
In Moscow, Lavrov told reporters from Kyodo News and other media organizations
Friday that it is important for Japan and Russia to pay attention to the
potential for future cooperation rather than being preoccupied with issues to
do with the past.
Lavrov described ties between the two countries as a ''strategically important
relationship'' and said former Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir
Putin, who is currently prime minister, had repeatedly expressed Russia's
determination to resolve the territorial row.
But he also urged Japan to make concessions on the issue, saying, ''Every
problem requires compromise for a solution.''
In their meeting, Nakasone and Lavrov will also reaffirm cooperation ahead of a
summit of the world's 20 major nations on the global financial crisis in
Washington on Nov. 15 and coordinate measures on the North Korean
denuclearization issue, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry sources.
Other topics on the agenda include reconfirming bilateral efforts on the
development of oil and natural gas in Eastern Siberia and speeding up
negotiations toward the conclusion of a nuclear energy cooperation accord, they
said.
Lavrov's visit will come on the heels of a trip to Japan by Russian Minister of
Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko last week.
The series of visits by Putin, Lavrov and Khristenko this year, aimed at
boosting bilateral relations, were agreed by then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo
Fukuda and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when they met at the Group of
Eight summit in Japan in July.
==Kyodo
