© Vitaliy Belousov /RIA Novosti/ POOL/TASS
TOKYO, March 20. /TASS/. The Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov called the talks in the format of “two plus two” with participation of Ministers of defence and foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Japan is very meaningful.
“We are grateful to our Japanese colleagues for the invitation, hospitality and the very informative talks,” the Minister said.
“Dialogue in this format contributes to the solution of the tasks set by our leaders, and in developing relations of new quality between Russia and Japan in all directions, in all spheres and in the interests of the Russian and Japanese peoples, not third party,” he said.
Lavrov also said that it is a comprehensive full-fledged development of Russian-Japanese relations, translating them into a new quality “will allow much more efficient and easier to solve any difficult questions”.
However, as the Minister said, the format of “two plus two” was not created to address issues related to the conclusion of a peace Treaty. “It was created to Russia and Japan to interact more effectively in the sphere of security,” – said the Russian foreign Minister.
Lavrov said that Russia and Japan have agreed to jointly work on counter-proposals on joint economic activities on southern Kuriles.
“We gave Japanese colleagues developed in an interagency format specific projects for joint economic activities (in the South Kuril Islands), he said. – In response is also received ideas and agreed that it would be quickly organized the work on these proposals”.
The Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has noticed that “on behalf of the presidents measures are taken to facilitate and simplify the procedures of visiting the South Kuril Islands by Japanese nationals who have lived on these Islands before.” “We also discussed the problems of further simplification of communication between citizens of Japan and the Russian Federation in General, including the possibility of visa-free regime between the Sakhalin oblast and the Hokkaido Prefecture,” – said Lavrov.
The Alliance approach
The Russian foreign Minister indicated that Moscow was concerned about the continuing trends of bloc approaches to security issues in the Asia-Pacific region.