MOSCOW, July 01. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and Japan continue work on a peace treaty, Russian ambassador to Japan Yevgeny Afanasyev told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

“As Russian President Vladimir Putin said and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed, it is not normal that 68 years after the end of the Second World War we have no peace treaty,” Afanasyev said. “Of course, we have relations of peace and these relations are developing”. He noted that the parties are workiong on this document.

The complicated international situation, according to Afanasyev, tells on bilateral relations with Japan as well. “Nevertheless, I think many in Japan begin to understand that further development of relations with Russia is in the interests of Japan,” he added.

Russia’s trade turnover with Japan is about the same as Russia’s trade turnover with the United States, even slightly more, the Russian diplomat noted. “Of course, this is three times less than Russia’s trade turnover with China, but, still, this is an impressive figure,” he said. “It is important for Japan too, since it exports energy resources from Russia. We have been working smoothly for decades on many projects, for instance, the Sakhalin project, and there are more promising projects.”