MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Russia will keep responding with harsh countermeasures to the Japanese authorities’ unfriendly steps, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

On September 13, talks took place between Lyudmila Vorobyova, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Third Asian Department, and Katsuro Kitagawa, Director General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s European Affairs Bureau

"They emphasized that amid the current situation, the Russian Federation will continue to respond to unfriendly moves of the Japanese authorities with countermeasures that will be extremely tough and sensitive for Tokyo, when being guided solely by its own national interests," the ministry said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry added that the Russian side gave a principled assessment of the current state and prospects of bilateral relations "which have degraded to an unprecedently low level due to the short-sighted hostile policy of [Japanese Prime Minister Fumio] Kishida’s administration."

The meeting was held at the request of the Japanese side.