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Putin wants to settle all history-rooted problems in relations with Japan

“We are ready to lend out shoulder to the Japanese in the area of energy sources,” he stressed
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

VLADIVOSTOK, September 9 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he wanted to settle all the history-rooted problems in relations between Russia and Japan.

“Japan is our key partner in the region. We want to settle all the problems that we have inherited from the past,” he said at a news conference after the APEC summit in Vladivostok.

“We have agreed that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will pay a visit to Russia to discuss all such problems in a calm atmosphere,” he noted.

Putin said that his meeting with the Japanese prime minister on the sidelines of the APEC summit focused on “Japan’s investments to Russia, on joint ventures.”

“I had an impression that the Japanese prime minister was satisfied with the progress of Japanese businesses in Russia,” Putin said and added that several days ago Japan’s Mazda had launched a new car assembly facility in Russia’s Far East.

“After the accident at Japan’s Fukushima-1 nuclear plant, special attention is focused on cooperation in the energy sector,” Putin went on. Russia’s national gas utility Gazprom has recently signed an agreement on the production of liquefied natural gas. “We are ready to lend out shoulder to the Japanese in the area of energy sources,” he stressed.