Sergei Shoigu
Relations between Russia and Japan “has increased markedly” in 2016. As reported on Monday, March 20, TASS, the Russian defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a meeting in Tokyo with his Japanese counterpart Tomomi Indoi.
“It is important that we managed to secure the progressive nature of their development,” he said.
Shoigu also expressed the view that the strengthening of bilateral relations in the military sphere should not lag behind the pace of development of political cooperation. “It is important that the strengthening of defence ties was not behind the dynamics of political contacts,” — said the head of the defense Ministry.
According to him, occurred in 2014 on the initiative of Tokyo’s suspension of contacts at the highest level of military departments of Russia and Japan “no one is benefited”.
Also Sergey Shoigu said about a wide range of issues for discussion with Tomomi Indoi — “from the perspectives of bilateral military cooperation to the assessment of the situation in the crisis regions of the world,” adding that will also have to discuss responses to the main contemporary threat of international terrorism.
“Russia and Japan shared security threats, and successfully they can be countered only by joint efforts”, — said Shoigu, adding that bilateral cooperation will contribute to “strengthening trust in the military sphere and regional stability”.
Also in Tokyo began the meeting of foreign Ministers of Russia and Japan, Sergei Lavrov and Fumio Kishida. The Japanese side stated its intention to discuss the whole complex of relations between the two countries, including joint economic activities on southern Kuriles.
The two debates are held ahead of the scheduled for the second half of the 20th March, negotiations in a format “2+2” with the participation of heads of the foreign and defense Ministers of Russia and Japan.