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Putin’s visit to Japan expected to result in series of important agreements

The Kremlin says Russia will not establish deadlines for resolving issue of peace treaty with Japan

© Alexey Druzhinin/Russia's presidential press-service/TASS

MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Around 10 intergovernmental documents, as well as 12-15 commercial agreements and a series of other documents related to business are expected to be signed during Russian President’s upcoming visit to Japan on December 15-16, Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Tuesday.

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Putin believes security cooperation to build trust between Russia and Japan

"The preparations are not yet over, but we expect around 10 intergovernmental documents, 12-15 important commercial deals to be signed in the presence of President (Vladimir Putin) and Prime Minister (of Japan Shinzo Abe)," he said, adding that this will be followed by a "meeting (of the leaders) with representatives of the Russian-Japanese forum of business circles" where "around 50 more business contracts will be signed."

"It is possible that the (Russian) president and the (Japanese) prime minister will make a statement on the establishment of the joint activity on the four Kuril Islands," Ushakov said adding that this issue was still in the stage of negotiations. He noted there is no need to artificially stimulate hope over Russian-Japanese peace treaty.

Peace treaty

Moscow believes it is inappropriate to create overstated expectations and establish in advance the time frames to address the issue of a peace treaty with Japan.

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"We would not like overstated expectations to be stimulated artificially. We have explained to the public and will do so in the future that there can be no simple solutions here," Ushakov said, commenting on the talks on resolving the territorial dispute and signing the Russian-Japanese peace treaty.

"That’s why we believe it is hardly appropriate to establish any deadlines for reaching a mutually acceptable formula in advance," he added.

Situation on Korean peninsula

The situation on the Korean peninsula may be on the agenda of the talks. "The negotiations may focus on some key issues of the international agenda, first of all, regional security including the situation on the Korean peninsula, as well as interaction in multilateral formats," Ushakov said, adding that Japan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2016-2017.

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