Moscow to consider Tokyo proposals on date of Putin’s visit to Japan - Russian foreign minister

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. Russia will consider Tokyo’s proposals on concrete date of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday after talks with his visiting Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida. "As for a visit to Japan by the Russian president, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has invited Vladimir Putin to pay such visit," the Russian minister said. "This invitation has been accepted, so we expect the hosts to appoint concrete date," he said. "We will be ready to consider corresponding proposals." "Undoubtedly, it is important to impart a tight and meaningful content to the next summit meeting," he said. "We are working on many joint initiatives. We hope they will be implemented in any case to enrich the Russian-Japanese relations." "We proceed from the fact that advancing any preliminary conditions for top-level contacts can hardly be called productive," he said, adding that the two leaders had regular contacts. Thus, they met last year on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty and APEC summits and had a number of telephone conversations. "We hope this dynamics will be preserved," Lavrov noted. "In any case, as I have already said, President Putin has accepted Prime Minister Abe’s invitation," he said. "And I think the sides will agree a concrete date [of Putin’s visit] as soon as the Japanese side offers its proposals." Kishida said in turn it was only naturals that the subject of Putin’s visit to Japan had been raised at the talks that had focused on Russia-Japan relations. "As for our meeting, I think it was very important, since we made a step forward in the Japanese-Russian relations and discussed President Putin’s visit to Japan," he said. Read more