Tokyo feels that the results of the meeting held between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum are positive, Takeshi Osuga, the spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
VLADIVOSTOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2018) Tokyo feels that the results of the meeting held between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum are positive, Takeshi Osuga, the spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
The meeting, which lasted for over two and a half hours on Monday, became the 22nd encounter between Putin and Abe.
"We positively assess the results of this top-level meeting," Osuga said.
He added that the meeting had proved the two leaders' belief in strengthening all the spheres of bilateral cooperation, including politics, the economy, culture and the peace treaty issue.
The fact that Japan and Russia have never signed a permanent peace treaty after the end of World War II has long been a stumbling block in Russia-Japan relations. The main issue standing in the way of a treaty is an agreement over a group of four islands that both countries claim � Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, collectively referred to as the Southern Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan.
Bilateral relations improved following Putin's visit to Japan in December 2016, with Moscow and Tokyo agreeing to develop joint projects on the islands and help the movement of people between the Kurils and Japan.
Putin said on Monday, following talks with Abe, that the peace treaty issue had been discussed, and both sides were ready to look for mutually satisfying options.
