Tokyo Says No Separate Meeting Between Kono, Lavrov Planned During Abe's Moscow Visit

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published January 21, 2019 | 02:29 PM

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono is not expected to have a separate meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the former's visit to Moscow where he would join Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Russian Division told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2019) Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono is not expected to have a separate meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the former's visit to Moscow where he would join Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for high-level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Russian Division told Sputnik.

On January 14, Moscow and Tokyo held the first ministerial round of talks on the conclusion of a permanent peace treaty. Following the meeting, Lavrov stressed that the parties confirmed their willingness to work based on the 1956 declaration that provided for the restoration of bilateral relations after WWII and stipulated that Japan and the Soviet Union would continue to make efforts toward signing a permanent peace treaty and settling the dispute over the islands, referred to as the Southern Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan.

"A separate meeting between the foreign ministers is not planned," the spokesperson said.

The official noted, however, that the two ministers would meet during the high-level talks between Abe and Putin.

On Sunday, Kyodo news Agency reported that Abe had been considering signing a peace treaty with Russia if Moscow hands over just two islands in a disputed chain off Japan's northern tip - Habomai and Shikotan - to end the decades-long standoff.

Following talks with Kono last week, Lavrov told reporters that any progress on the peace treaty was impossible without Japan's recognition of WWII outcome in full, including Russia's sovereignty over all the islands of the South Kuril ridge.