MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Russia and Japan are shaping up detailed plans for cooperation between regions and prefectures, Viktor Ozerov, a member of the Federation Council upper house of Russia parliament said on Thursday at a conference with a delegation of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japanese parliament.
"Currently, the detailed plans for inter-regional cooperation are taking contour - not only cooperation with the regions of the Russian Far East but with all the Russian regions and all prefectures of Japan," said Ozerov, who heads the Federation Council’s workgroup for cooperation with the Japanese Diet [parliament].
He also said members of this workgroup were expected to make a visit to Japan this coming autumn. "Quite naturally, we won’t confine our contacts there to the House of Councillors [the upper chamber of parliament] but will also have meetings with members of the House of Representatives," Ozerov indicated.
"The discussions with Japanese counterparts are getting increasingly fruitful and open from one year to another," he told reporters. "There are controversies in our relations but they provide a source for development, on the other hand."
"Our conversation was frank and principled and we didn’t conceal anything from each other," Ozerov said.
He added that the participants in the conference had also raised the issue of the Southern Kurile Islands.
Russia says the latter group of islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai archipelago - went over to it after the end of World War II on entirely legitimate grounds, while the Japanese government claims Moscow should cede control over them.
Russia and Japan do not have a formal peace treaty that would usher in peace as a formal end to World War II.