Moscow and Tokyo’s top diplomats held bilateral negotiations in the Japanese capital on the second day of Sergey Lavrov’s visit to the country. The agenda included talks on post-war peace treaty, and on visa-free regime agreement between the two countries.
When Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono, both accompanied by defence ministers of their countries, started their talks in 2+2 format on Thursday, everything went without major disturbances. But on Friday, when top military officials left, giving way to bilateral diplomatic negotiations, Japanese foreign ministry compound looked almost like a fortress besieged by local ultranationalists. Two vans were driving slowly around the block, playing recorded anti-Russian messages through loudspeakers.