1st Japan-Russia Ministerial Security Talks Set for Sat.

Tokyo, Oct. 28 (Jiji Press)--Japan and Russia are set to hold the first-ever meeting of their foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo on Saturday to discuss ways to promote exchanges and antiterror collaboration. The meeting will be attended by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and his counterpart, Sergei Shoigu. Prior to the meeting, Kishida and Lavrov, as well as Onodera and Shoigu, will separately have talks on Friday. At a meeting in Moscow in April, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to start the ministerial security dialogue. Russia is the third country, after the United States and Australia, for Japan to launch such talks with. For Russia, Japan is the fifth partner after Britain, the United States, France and Italy. The Japan-Russia dialogue is expected to be a "deterrent against China" as both Japan and Russia are increasingly concerned about China's military buildup, a Japanese government source said. In addition, Japan and Russia face the common challenge of preventing terror attacks during the upcoming Olympics, the 2014 winter games in Russia's Sochi and the 2020 summer games in Tokyo. In the security dialogue, the two countries will also discuss mutual visits by aircraft of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force and Russian Air Force and expanding joint search-and-rescue drills, conducted so far in the Sea of Japan, to include the Sea of Okhotsk and the Arctic Ocean. Based on a memorandum of understanding between defense authorities, Japan and Russia have been carrying out mutual visits by warships as well as joint drills since 1999. In October last year, the Japanese Foreign Ministry and Russia's security council agreed to begin regular talks. END