Russia's Lavrov visits northern Japan port city of Hakodate

HAKODATE, Japan, Nov. 4 Kyodo - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Hakodate in southern Hokkaido on Tuesday on the first leg of his two-day visit to Japan to attend events marking the 150th anniversary this year of the opening of Russia's first consulate in
Japan.

Shortly after his arrival at Hakodate airport, Lavrov went to the Hakodate
campus of Russia's state-run Far Eastern National University to attend the
opening ceremony of its Russian center.
In a speech at the ceremony, Lavrov expressed his hope that the Russian center
will help promote exchanges between Russia and Japan.
Lavrov, who became the first Russian foreign minister to set foot in the
northern Japan port city, later visited a Russian cemetery in Hakodate and
attended an exchange session with citizens of Hakodate.
He also visited the Hakodate Russian Orthodox Church and the former Russian
consulate building.
Russia opened its first consulate in Hakodate in 1858 following the conclusion
of the 1855 Japan-Russia peace and amity treaty.
After functioning as the Russian consulate in Hakodate until 1944, the old
consulate building, which was completed in 1908, was later used as the city's
youth center from 1964 to 1996, Hakodate city officials said. The old consulate
building is not being used at present, they said.
On Wednesday, Lavrov is scheduled to hold talks in Tokyo with Japanese Foreign
Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.
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 a long-standing territorial dispute over a set of
Russian-held islets east of Hokkaido, according to Foreign Ministry sources.
==Kyodo