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Lavrov confirms Putin, Abe to meet this year

The Russian top diplomat says the current G20 meeting provided a good opportunity to assess the implementation of the agreements reached during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan

Japanese and Russian foreign ministers, Fumio Kishida and Sergey Lavrov Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Japanese and Russian foreign ministers, Fumio Kishida and Sergey Lavrov

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

BONN /Germany/, February 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold a meeting this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial consultations in the German city of Bonn.

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Abe says he wants to sign Russia-Japan peace treaty with Putin

"We have been moving forward at a good pace, which will allow us to draw up a full agenda for the meeting between the Russian president (Vladimir Putin) and the Japanese prime minister (Shinzo Abe) scheduled to be held this year," Lavrov said.

The Russian top diplomat added that the current meeting on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial consultations provided a good opportunity to assess the implementation of the agreements reached during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan.

"We have been maintaining regular contacts, taking advantage of bilateral visits and multilateral meetings," Lavrov said during his meeting with Kishida. "A number of meetings aimed at facilitating practical steps to implement these agreements have already taken place," he added. "In January, members of the Japanese parliament visited Moscow, there have been a lot of meetings between the two countries’ deputy foreign ministers."

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