Plans for next meeting between Russian, Japanese top diplomats affected by coronavirus

TOKYO, March 17. /TASS/. Japan and Russia continue to discuss the date for the next meeting between Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, taking into account the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Motegi said during a press conference on Tuesday. "It is rather easy to determine the reason, however, we continue approving the agenda," he said in response to a question on whether the lack of set plans for his next meeting with Lavrov is due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Motegi added that he expects to hold the next round of talks with the Russian top diplomat as soon as possible. The latest meeting between the Russian and Japanese foreign ministers took place in February in Munich. On the outcomes of the meeting, Motegi stated that he had invited Lavrov to visit Japan in the near future. No exact date for the meeting was announced. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ministers discussed the development of bilateral relations and the schedule for upcoming contacts on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. On March 11, WHO officially characterized the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic. The disease has spread to about 130 countries. According to official data, over 170,000 people have been infected with the virus globally, and over 6,000 have died. There are 93 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Russia, including 53 cases in Moscow. Russian-Japanese peace treaty Since the mid-20th century, Russia and Japan have been holding consultations in order to clinch a peace treaty as a follow-up to World War II. The Kuril Islands issue remains the key sticking point since after WWII the islands were handed over to the Soviet Union while Japan laid claims to the four southern islands. In November 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Singapore and agreed that the two countries would accelerate the pace of the peace negotiations based on the 1956 Joint Declaration. The document ended the state of war and said that the Soviet government was ready to hand Shikotan Island and a group of small islands called Habomai over to Japan on condition that Tokyo would take control of them once a peace treaty was signed. However, after Japan and the United States had signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security in 1960, the Soviet Union withdrew its obligation to hand over the islands. A Soviet government’s memorandum dated January 27, 1960 said that those islands would only be handed over to Japan if all foreign troops were pulled out of the country. Russia has stated on numerous occasions that the document does not set out handover conditions and thus requires further clarification. Read more