Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said on Friday that positive changes in Tokyo’s relations with Moscow have been emerging.
Japan’s top diplomat and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held bilateral talks in Tokyo on Friday. Before being joined by their delegations, the two ministers spent more than half an hour talking tete-a-tete.
On Thursday, the Russian and Japanese foreign and defence ministers held talks in a so-called 2+2 format. Despite voicing disagreements over Russia’s military activities in the disputed southern Kuril islands, the diplomatic and military chiefs of the two countries noted productivity in the negotiations and reaffirmed a mutual desire to further develop bilateral cooperation on security.