Russian-Japanese ties should be brought to a new level, Lavrov says

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Russia calls for more efforts on bringing bilateral ties with Japan to an absolutely new level, and there are reserves for that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday, opening talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono. "We are actively calling for carrying out additional efforts to bring bilateral relations to an absolutely new level - the level of trust, genuine partnership, including partnership in foreign policy affairs," Lavrov said. "Reserves, especially in economic, investment sphere and reserves in security cooperation, are truly inexhaustible." The Russian foreign minister noted that over the past years Russian-Japanese relations have gained a good pace and have been developing in a whole number of areas. Contacts between the heads of foreign and defense ministries, including in the "2+2" format and contacts at the level of security councils are held on a regular basis, Lavrov said. Not without difficulties related to external factors, trade and economic cooperation is developing, also on the basis of Russia’s priority investment list and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan on cooperation in eight areas. "A very rich program of cross years between Russia and Japan has been successfully implemented, which signals sincere desire of our citizens to deepen dialogue and contacts," Lavrov stressed. Read more