Earlier, Toshimitsu Motegi stated that he hoped for a frank dialogue to resolve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, who took up his post in September, is leaving for Russia on Tuesday with his first visit. He will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, as well as the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin in the framework of the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Affairs.
“From December 17 to 21, I intend to visit Russia”, – said the Minister at a press conference last week.
“I will hold a meeting there with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as responsible for negotiating the peace treaty. I look forward to frank dialogue to resolve the territorial issue and sign the peace treaty on the basis of the 1956 Joint Declaration”, – he added.
Motegi also noted that his previous two meetings with Lavrov this year, which were held in New York and Nagoya, were limited in time and this time he expects a longer discussion of the bilateral agenda. He also spoke in favour of further promotion of the projects within the framework of the joint Russian-Japanese economic activity in the southern part of the Kuril Islands. According to Motegi, he expects that as this activity intensifies, progress will also be seen in the peace treaty negotiations.
Following a meeting with Motegi in Nagoya in November, Lavrov said that the U.S.-Japanese military-political alliance creates obstacles to the conclusion of a peace treaty between Tokyo and Moscow. He also added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Security Council of Japan had handed over to their Japanese counterparts a list of specific issues in the field of security, which cause concern to the Russian Federation in connection with the existence and continuous strengthening of this alliance.