Russia Wants To Boost High-Tech Cooperation With Japan - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Russia Wants to Boost High-Tech Cooperation With Japan - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Moscow wants to increase high technology cooperation with Tokyo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday

NAGOYA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2019) Moscow wants to increase high technology cooperation with Tokyo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.

The remarks came after Lavrov met with his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, on Friday on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, which is hosted by the Japanese city of Nagoya. Motegi is expected to pay his first official visit to Russia in December.

"We would like to increase cooperation with Japanese partners in the high-tech area. There is some progress in healthcare first and foremost, in creating high-tech oncology centers. We discussed this yesterday as well," Lavrov told a press conference on the results of the G20 meeting.

The minister noted that Russia and Japan would continue working on practical steps to implement agreements reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"As regards the joint economic activities [on the Southern Kuril Islands], they are developing quite well. First and foremost, there is some progress in such projects as advanced waste treatment and tourist trips to the Southern Kuril Islands. But, of course, these two areas are not so breakthrough. They are less strategic," Lavrov argued.

Addressing the development of Russia-Japan economic relations, Lavrov noted that the two countries implemented many large projects, including on Sakhalin.

"Japan is interested in developing Sakhalin projects and participating in Arctic LNG and other projects," Lavrov added.

Russia and Japan have not signed a permanent peace treaty after the end of World War II mainly due to the dispute over islands of the Kurils archipelago � 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. In November 2018, Moscow and Tokyo agreed to speed up the negotiations on the long-pending peace treaty.

In December 2016, during Putin's visit to Japan, the Russian president and the Japanese prime minister agreed to search for the possibilities of joint economic activities on the disputed islands. The first trip of Japanese tourists to the islands of Kunashir and Iturup took place in late October-early November as part of the agreement on joint activities that was reached by the two leaders last June during the G20 summit in Osaka.