Japan Announces Abe-Putin Meeting in N.Y. Monday

Tokyo, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New York on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday. The meeting is apparently intended to smooth the way for Putin to make his planned visit to Japan by the end of this year. "The talks between the two countries' leaders will have profound significance for pushing bilateral relations forward, especially with regard to a territorial dispute," Suga said. The dispute concerns the sovereignty over four northwestern Pacific islands that were seized from Japan by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II. Due to the row, Japan and Russia have not concluded a peace treaty to put a formal end to their wartime hostilities. At a press conference, Suga, Japan's top government spokesman, also announced that Abe will visit the United States and Jamaica for a total of seven days from Saturday. In New York, Abe will also attend the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where he will deliver a speech on Tuesday to appeal for U.N. Security Council reform. After that, Abe will move on to Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, to meet with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. At a separate press conference on Friday, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he will visit the United States for five days from Monday. In New York on Wednesday, Kishida will hold talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, hoping to make preparations for a meeting between Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye expected to be held in South Korea as early as late October. The two leaders have yet to hold a one-on-one meeting since they each took office, due chiefly to history issues. Kishida will also take part in three-way foreign ministers' meetings--a Japan-U.S.-South Korea meeting and a Japan-U.S-India meeting. END