PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2019) KAMCHATSKY, January 13 (Sputnik) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has been surprised by Tokyo's reluctance to brief the press on next Monday's peace treaty talks between their top diplomats, the ministerial spokeswoman said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono will meet in Moscow on January 14 in a bid to push ahead with the signing of the post-WWII pact, which the countries failed to ink over a land row.
"We were absolutely surprised when Japanese colleagues approached us a day before the negotiations, asking not to hold a joint press conference on the results," Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya 1 channel.
She wondered why Tokyo had created a "nervous atmosphere" in the media in the run-up to the meeting but refused to tell the press about its outcome. Earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Japanese government of making "distortive" remarks.
