Tokyo, December 27: Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Sunday begins his first visit to Russia in his capacity. During his two-day visit on December 27-28 he plans to discuss “prospects for resolving the territorial issue in the two countries’ relations as well as the dates of Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s possible visit to Russia,” a Japanese diplomatic source said. “Special attention to the territorial issue will be paid at the talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on December 28 and at the two ministers’ working lunch,” the official said.
In general “the talks with Lavrov will continue for about three hours, which will allow to touch upon a wide range of issues on the bilateral agenda.”
Among other themes on the agenda of the talks will be “the development of business cooperation, including that in energy, and its intensification in the Asia-Pacific Region in the light of Japan’s presidency over the APEC forum in 2010 and Russia’s presidency in 2012,” the official said.
Bilateral cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region “will be considered proceeding from Prime Minister Hatoyama’s statements that he sees Russia as an important partner in this direction.” The two foreign ministers also “plan to study the situation on the Korean Peninsula.”
The economic bloc of issues will be considered at the working meeting of Katsuya Okada and Russian Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko today.
—Agencies