Updated 1:38 p.m. Moscow Time
MILAN, October 17 (RIA Novosti) – President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to meet during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
“Before the ASEM summit began, Putin had a short separate meeting with Abe here,” he said. “The prime minister and the president agreed to hold a full-format bilateral meeting for a detailed discussion of bilateral Russian-Japanese relations and international issues, including counteracting the Islamic State,” he added.
The APEC forum of 21 Pacific Rim member economies seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The 26th summit is due to begin in Beijing on November 3 and will last for ten days.
Putin and Abe agreed to meet on the APEC margins during a phone conversation in early October.
President Putin is also scheduled to visit Japan this fall, but no specific dates have been set.
Since Abe took office in 2012, he has held a series of meetings with Putin in a bid to improve economic relations with Russia and to resolve the Kuril Islands dispute.
As the situation in Ukraine continued to deteriorate, Japan followed the lead of the United States, European Union and other Group of Seven member states, imposing sanctions against Russia and throwing relations between the two nations "a few steps back," according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
