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Japan keeps working on possibility of foreign minister’s visit to Russia

At the same time Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida remarks that Russian PM Medvedev’s visit to the Kuril Islands "would be incompatible with Japan’s stance"

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida

© Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP

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Russia continues work on issue of concluding peace treaty with Japan

TOKYO, August 7. /TASS/. The Japanese Foreign Ministry keeps working on the possibility of Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Russia.

"There is an agreement on arranging for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan for a summit meeting. Alongside this work is in progress on my visit to Moscow to prepare for that event," Kishida told a news conference in Tokyo.

"Nothing is decided yet at this point," Kishida said, when asked if Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to the Kuril Islands might affect his plans for a visit to Russia. At the same time he remarked that Medvedev’s visit to the Kuril Islands "would be incompatible with Japan’s stance."

To the question if the possibility of Medvedev’s visit was discussed during the brief encounter with his Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur, Kishida replied that "it was on the sidelines, so we confined ourselves to greetings without having a specific discussion."

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