Russia, Japan need to take relations to new level, says Lavrov

NAGOYA /Japan/, November 22. /TASS/. Moscow and Tokyo should take steps aimed at taking bilateral relations to a qualitatively new level, which will enable them to resolve disagreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. "The most important thing now is to establish a process for our cooperation, which will enable us to take relations to a qualitatively new level in all areas without exception, including economy and foreign policy," Lavrov said at the talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. "I am ready to cooperate closely with you and all your team in order to move in that direction. We will talk about that today and will discuss the issue in more detail in Moscow," he added. According to Russia’s top diplomat, Moscow sincerely wants to resolve all disagreements with Tokyo, including the peace treaty issue. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov earlier told TASS that fundamental differences in Moscow’s and Tokyo’s approaches towards the peace treaty issue persisted. He added that Motegi was expected to pay a visit to Russia in the second half of December. Read more