Japan, Russia agree on Lavrov’s upcoming visit to Tokyo

MUNICH, Feb 18, 2019, TASS. Japanese and Russian foreign ministers have agreed on that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will pay a visit to Tokyo soon, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told reporters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, reported the TASS News Agency.

“We have agreed on to organize the upcoming visit of [Sergey Lavrov] to Japan,” Kono said, according to the Kyodo news agency, stressing that the problem of signing a peace treaty cannot be solved overnight. “This is a problem, a solution to which has not been found for more than 70 years. But I would like to make joint efforts [with Russia] in order to achieve this goal,” the Japanese foreign minister said.

After talks with his Japanese counterpart, Lavrov told reporters that Russian and Japanese Deputy Foreign Ministers Igor Morgulov and Takeo Mori would hold consultations on a peace treaty in the coming weeks, and a round of strategic dialogue at the level of first deputies is scheduled for April 2.

“We agreed [with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono] on our further work. We have deputies, who are in charge of this effort between the meetings of foreign ministers, at the instruction of the Russian president and the Japanese prime minister,” he said. “The deputies will hold this contact in the coming weeks, and then we will decide on a new meeting of the ministers, this time on the Japanese territory.”

Earlier, Japanese mass media reported that the Russian foreign minister’s visit to Japan could take place in March or April 2019, but the Japanese Foreign Minister has not officially confirmed this information.