TOKYO, August 31. /TASS/. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the upcoming September 2 talks in Vladivostok with Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to finally determine the timeframe of the Russian president’s visit to Japan, said former deputy of the Japanese parliament Muneo Suzuki, who held a meeting with the Japanese government head on Wednesday, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The prime minister said that at the upcoming meeting he would like to finally resolve the issue of the time of President Putin's visit to Japan, Suzuki, who once played an important role in the national politics and, in particular, actually oversaw relations with Russia, told reporters. Suzuki actively supported the development of contacts with Russia, and he has repeatedly visited Moscow as an official representative of Tokyo. The reasons that prompted the Japanese prime minister to meet with Muneo Suzuki on the eve of his visit to Vladivostok are not reported.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on September 2 on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum to discuss bilateral ties, including preparations for his visit to Japan at the end of the year. "Talks with the Japanese prime minister are due on the evening of September 2," Ushakov said, noting that first they will meet in a narrow format to discuss strategic issues of bilateral ties and "sensitive international problems". This will be followed by a meeting with the participation of the delegations that will include ministers and business executives.
"Everybody knows that Putin’s long delayed visit to Japan is due in December, and I think that it is the agenda of this visit that will be discussed at the meeting in Vladivostok," he said. "The timeframe of the visit has been coordinated," but will be announced by agreement with the Japanese side, Ushakov said.
Ushakov said Putin and Abe were expected to have "an intensive discussion on bilateral trade-economic, political issues, as well as on international matters". "This will be a good warm-up ahead of the already scheduled visit of our president to Japan in December," he went on.
"We can expect that the conversation will touch upon the issue of a peace treaty. The Russian side is ready to continue negotiations on the issue," Ushakov said, noting that the recent round of consultations between the two countries’ foreign ministries was held in Tokyo on June 22 and then in Moscow on August 26.