Japan's New Foreign Minister Hopes To Hold Talks With Lavrov Soon

Faizan Hashmi Published September 11, 2019 | 06:38 PM

Japan's new Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Wednesday that he was looking forward to holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the near future

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2019) Japan's new Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Wednesday that he was looking forward to holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the near future.

"I want to hold talks with Minister Lavrov as soon as possible," Motegi said, answering a reporter's question on Russian-Japanese relations.

According to him, the foreign ministers will have to find a mutually acceptable solution to bilateral issues based on trust between the leaders of the two countries through an open exchange of views.

Earlier in the day, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe carried out a planned cabinet reshuffle within the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party.

At a press conference, the head of the cabinet confirmed that Japan is determined to continue efforts to resolve the territorial dispute and conclude a peace treaty with Russia.

Russia and Japan have not signed a permanent peace treaty after the end of World War II mainly due to the dispute over a series of the Kuril Islands referred to as the Southern Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan which remains one of the main stumbling blocks in the peace talks.