Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Russia would
strengthen relations with Japan, news agencies reported.
This work must continue despite the political situation in
Japan, Putin told a regular cabinet conference in the Kremlin.
Putin held a phone conversation with Japan's new Prime Minister
Yasuo Fukuda on Friday, in which Putin said Russia seeks to
implement the Russian-Japanese action plan and boost cultural
relations and youth contacts with Japan.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives in Japan on Tuesday for a
visit that aims to improve bilateral relations. Economic
cooperation will also be at the top of the agenda at meetings
Lavrov will attend in Tokyo.
Russian-Japanese trade has reached US$15 billion this year and
recorded an average 50 percent annual growth since 2003, official
figures show.
However, territorial dispute over the four islands, Kunashiri,
Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai, which are located northeast off
Japan's northernmost Hokkaido and known as the Northern Territories
in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, has been along-standing
barrier to the development of bilateral ties.
The four islands were occupied by Soviet troops after the end of
the World War II and are currently under Russian control. Japan and
Russia signed no peace treaty after the war because of the
dispute.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin has said that
Moscow "is interested in finding such solutions which would help to
conclude a peace treaty."
The Russian-Japanese partnership should not be a "hostage of the
territorial problem," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2007)
