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Japan’s PM hopes to advance peace treaty talks at meeting with Putin

The two leaders are expected to meet at the G20 summit in Osaka
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe EPA-EFE/KIMIMASA MAYAMA
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
© EPA-EFE/KIMIMASA MAYAMA

OSAKA, June 27. /TASS/. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised that at the forthcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Osaka he will do his utmost to achieve progress towards concluding a peace treaty with Russia, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman told a news briefing for journalists accredited at the G20 summit, a TASS correspondent reports.

"After closing the [G20] summit I will have a summit meeting with president Putin. I want to move as much as possible on the peace treaty negotiations," the spokesman quoted Abe as saying. The talks between the two leaders are due after the G20 summit on June 29.

In reply to a TASS question the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said he was unable to say if Abe and Putin would have a one-on-one meeting with only interpreters present.

Earlier, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin and Abe would sign a number of documents and agreements, including commercial contracts. The Russian and Japanese leaders will make a statement for the press and appear at a gala ceremony closing the Russia-Japan cross years.

The G20 summit will be the 14th and the first one in Japan. It will be held at the international exhibition compound INTEX Osaka on the artificial island Sakishima in Osaka Bay on June 28-29.