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Japan’s premier expects progress at talks with Putin on signing peace treaty

Shinzo Abe also intends to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin the implementation of an 8-point plan of cooperation between Tokyo and Moscow

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin the implementation of an 8-point plan of cooperation between Japan and Russia and reach progress on concluding the bilateral peace treaty, Abe said on Saturday.

The Japanese premier spoke in an interview with the TV program "News on Saturday with Sergei Brilyov" on Rossiya 1 TV Channel.

"Two years ago I came up with a proposal on cooperation in the form of an 8-point plan and now these projects are already being implemented. At the upcoming meeting with the president [President Putin], I intend to discuss how far we have been able to progress in implementing this plan," Abe said.

"I also expect to reach progress in solving the most important task - signing the peace treaty," he said.

According to Abe, he came to agreement with President Putin in the views on the ways of achieving the assigned goal. Both leaders believe that the awareness by the peoples of both countries of the importance of Japanese-Russian ties is a key to concluding the peace treaty.

"During our meeting in Nagato, a new approach was formulated towards solving this problem. The essence of this approach is that while moving along the path of concluding the peace treaty, the residents of Russia and Japan should realize the importance of bilateral relations," the Japanese premier said, noting that the steps taken in this direction were a success.

The Russian president’s visit to Japan that took place on December 15-16, 2016 in Nagato (the prefecture of Yamaguchi) focused on the peace treaty and the issue of the South Kuril Islands, and also bilateral economic cooperation.

Following their meeting, Putin and Abe adopted a joint declaration where they noted that the start of consultations on the joint economic activity of Russia and Japan on the south Kuril Islands could become an important step towards concluding the peace treaty.

As the Kremlin press office reported on Friday, Abe will visit Russia on May 25-26 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Vladimir Putin Shinzo Abe

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