TOKYO, Sept 5 (NNN-NHK) – Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, departed for a three-day trip to Russia, where he will meet with President Vladimir Putin, to discuss issues pertaining to territory and steps towards a peace treaty.
“I hope to talk frankly with President Putin, to take our peace treaty negotiations to the next level,” the Japanese leader said, prior to departing for Russia.
Abe is slated to meet with Putin on Thursday (today), and hold talks related to a long-standing territorial dispute over Russian-held islands, off Hokkaido in northern Japan.
The four islets, central to the dispute, are known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.
The decades-old territorial spat has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.
Both parties have, however, provisionally agreed to discuss furthering joint economic activities on the islands.
Such activities span defence, search and rescue operations, medical areas, industry promotion and energy development, in line with a previously proposed plan, which also covers aquaculture and tourism.
The multi-faceted cooperation plan, based around five pillars, proposed by Abe in 2016, was, purportedly, to become an important foundation for future ties.– NNN-NHK
