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Japan seeks to solve Southern Kuril Islands dispute during Putin’s visit

"We would like to conclude a peace agreement and solve the territorial issue", former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said

TOKYO, May 20. /TASS/. The Japanese leadership expects that President Vladimir Putin will visit Tokyo and hopes to solve the issue of the Southern Kuril Islands with Russia, former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura has said.

"I want to switch to the political issue - we would like to conclude a peace agreement and solve the territorial issue, and therefore we would like President Putin to come to Japan," Komura said at the meeting with the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Sergey Naryshkin, in Tokyo on Wednesday.

"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is thinking about this very seriously," said Komura, who is the vice-president of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Earlier this week, Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Tokyo was planning to continue working on preparing for holding this year’s visit of the Russian president.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe informed US President Barack Obama about this at their latest meeting in April, according to the diplomats.

"At talks with President Obama in April Prime Minister Abe said that the coordination effort linked to the Russian president’s visit to Japan will continue," the ministry official told TASS. "He also said that Japan attaches great importance to the cooperation as part of the G7 and will make effort towards the peaceful solution to the issues linked to Ukraine," the diplomat said.

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