TAORMINA (Italy) (Sputnik) – Abe and Macron agreed Friday on importance of Moscow's role for settling international issues, Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Press Secretary Norio Maruyama said.
"The sides have discussed North Korea, as well as Russia, as Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit France on May 29. They agreed that Russian participation is highly important and dialogue with Russia is extremely important for resolution of international issues," Maruyama told reporters.
During the telephone talks, the Japanese prime minister congratulated Macron on the victory in the French presidential elections. The latter, in turn, noted that he was interested in strengthening the bilateral relations.
Macron won the second round of the election, which took place on Sunday, with 66.1 percent of the votes against 33.9 percent of his rival Marine Le Pen, according to the French Interior Ministry's data.
