Russia May Arrange Foreign Ministers Meeting with Japan in July

Tokyo, May 5 (Jiji Press)–Japanese ruling party lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, quoting a senior Russian diplomat, has said that Moscow may arrange a meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers in July. Suzuki, a member of Japan’s House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament, met with Andrey Rudenko, Russia’s deputy foreign minister in charge of Asian affairs, and other officials of the country in Moscow on Monday. Rudenko said that Moscow would be ready to arrange, if Japan hopes, a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in July on the sidelines of a series of foreign ministers meetings related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to be held in the Philippines, according to Suzuki, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. The Russian side is not planning to attach conditions for the possible bilateral meeting, such as Japan lifting its sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Suzuki also said. If a Motegi-Lavrov meeting is realized, it would be the first foreign ministers meeting between Japan and Russia since the February 2022 start of Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine. Russia is apparently trying to figure out Japan’s response by suggesting that it is ready to soften its stance toward the East Asian nation, at a time when the two countries’ relations have deteriorated considerably. Citing the Japanese sanctions, Russia has unilaterally suspended its peace treaty talks with Tokyo including the two nations’ long-standing territorial issue over four Russian-controlled northwestern Pacific islands. The islands were seized by the former Soviet Union from Japan at the end of World War II. The territorial issue has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from concluding a peace treaty to formally end their wartime hostilities. Suzuki arrived in Moscow on Sunday for his first visit to Russia since late last year. This is his fourth trip to the country since its invasion of Ukraine. In Monday’s talks, Suzuki called on Russia to agree on restarting a program allowing former Japanese residents of the islands to visit their family graves there, stressing that this year marks 70 years since the normalization of bilateral diplomatic relations under the 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration. On Tuesday, Suzuki is slated to meet with Mikhail Galuzin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister for issues related to former Soviet republics, to discuss issues related to the Ukraine crisis. Galuzin is former Russian ambassador to Japan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]