MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to pay an official visit to Japan in 2019 and may also attend the G20 summit in Osaka, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said on Wednesday.

"The Japanese side will obviously confirm an invitation for our president to visit Japan in 2019 and it will be also connected with the closing ceremony of the year of intercultural relations [between Russia and Japan]," Ushakov said.

Ushakov’s statements come ahead of the meeting between President Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe within the frames of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) next week in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.

The presidential aide said that Japan’s Osaka is scheduled up to host the summit of G20 member states on June 28-29, 2019 and the Russian president was likely to pay an official visit at that time.

"We are currently considering a possibility of timing [Putin’s] visit for this summit," Ushakov added.

Russian President Putin paid an official visit to Japan on December 15-16, 2016, holding bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Putin’s visit to Japan’s Nagato (the prefecture of Yamaguchi) focused on the peace treaty, the issue of the South Kuril Islands as well as on 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.