Japan Hopes to Achieving Results in Bilateral Relations With Russia – PM

TOKYO (Sputnik) – In September, the Japanese prime minister took part in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, during which he held three-hour talks with the Russian president. One of the outcomes of the meeting was the announcement of Putin's visit to Japan on December 15, which has been postponed since 2014. Ahead of Putin's visit to Japan, the leaders will meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru in November.

"I hope that [the visit] will become a chance to achieve results in the broad fields of politics and economics and to push forward Sino-Russian relations in general," Abe said during his meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich at the Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum in Kyoto, as quoted by Kyodo News Agency.

The international STS forum, which serves as a platform for open discussions on the opportunities arising from science and technology, is held in the Japanese city of Kyoto on the island of Honshu on October 2-4.

Japan and Russia never signed a permanent peace treaty after World War II due to a disagreement over four islands, which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories. The disputed islands, located in the Sea of Okhotsk, were claimed by Soviet forces at the end of the war.