Lavrov: Growing Russia-Japan Ties Set Busy Agenda for Putin-Abe April Meeting

BONN (Sputnik) — The current pace of bilateral contacts will "enable us to prepare a busy agenda for upcoming contacts between the Russian president and the Japanese prime minister," Lavrov said Friday at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, held on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial meeting in Germany's Bonn.

The sides stay in touch regularly by means of bilateral visits and multilateral events, the Russian foreign minister noted. The meeting on the margins of the G20 summit is a good chance to see how bilateral agreements are being implemented, he added.

"In 2017, there was quite a number of meetings on advancing these agreements in practice," Lavrov said, noting in particular the contacts held on the deputy-foreign-minister level.

Since 2016, the Russian-Japanese relations have been rapidly developing. In mid-December 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Japan where the sides signed an unprecedented number of documents on bilateral cooperation. The sides agreed to start developing economic cooperation in the disputed area of the Kuril Islands in order to create conditions for negotiations on a peace treaty between the countries.

The Kuril Islands are the subject of the long-standing territorial dispute between Russia and Japan. Japan lays claim to Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan islands and the Habomai group of islets. The territorial dispute has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty after World War II.

In January, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would visit Russia in April to discuss signing a peace treaty with Russia, which has not been signed since WWII sue to a territorial dispute. Abe's second visit to Russia is scheduled for September.