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Russian upper house speaker’s visit to Tokyo is part of preparations for Putin-Abe meeting

Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan is scheduled for December

TOKYO, October 17. /TASS/. The trip of Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko to Tokyo in November will become part of preparations for the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan and his meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, senior Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev told TASS.

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"The visit of Federation Council’s chair always has several goals. In this context we speak about the visit as one of elements of the preparations for talks at the highest level as the visit of the Russian president is being prepared," said Kosachev, who heads the upper house’s foreign affairs committee.

"To make the visit of (Putin to Tokyo) fruitful, there is the need for additional discussions of the current problems and prospects of cooperation," Kosachev explained.

In early September, Putin and Abe held a meeting in Russia’s Vladivostok during the Eastern Economic Forum and agreed to step up preparations for talks. They decided to meet in November in Peru at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Now Tokyo and Moscow are actively preparing for Putin’s visit to Japan scheduled for December. In October, Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to visit Russia. In November, the bilateral intergovernmental commission on trade and economic issues is due to be held in Tokyo. It will be attended by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.

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