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Japanese government officially announces premier’s visit to Russia

Putin and Abe agreed to activate peace talks during a meeting in Singapore last November

© Alexey Druzhinin/Presidential press service/TASS

TOKYO, January 18. /TASS/. The Japanese government officially confirms that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Russia on January 21-22, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday.

"On January 21-24, Prime Minister Abe will visit Russia and Switzerland. He will hold talks will President [Vladimir] Putin on January 22," he said.

RUSSIA-JAPAN DISPUTE OVER KURIL ISLANDS

Earlier, the Kremlin press service said that Putin and Abe will meet in Moscow to discuss signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan. According to Kremlin, Abe will pay a working visit to Russia on an invitation from the Russian president.

Putin and Abe agreed to activate peace talks during a meeting in Singapore last November. Later in December, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, the leaders announced the establishment of a new peace treaty negotiations format. Both top diplomats were put in charge of overseeing its work. The meeting between the Russian and Japanese foreign ministers, which was held on Monday, became the first within the framework of these new agreement.

For decades, Moscow and Tokyo have been negotiating a peace treaty after World War II. The main stumbling block is the status of the Southern part of the Kuril islands. After World War II, the whole archipelago became part of the Soviet Union. However, Tokyo disputes Russian claims over Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan islands as well as a number of smaller uninhabited islands called the Habomai Islands in Japan. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly stated that the Russian sovereignty over those islands is fixed in international legal documents and cannot be questioned.

On January 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono, held talks in Moscow within the framework of the first round of the peace treaty negotiations. As the Russian top diplomat noted, Moscow will not discuss its sovereignty over the southern part of the Kurils. In turn, the Japanese envoys confined themselves to statements that work on concluding a bilateral peace treaty is in progress.

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