MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Japan plans to develop relations with Russia through "frequent dialogue" between the leaders of the two countries.
This intention was expressed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya, the press service for the Japanese embassy in Russia reported on Monday.
The report says that the Japanese prime minister, during a 30-minute conversation, "said he was glad that the two leaders were able to find the time to meet with each other."
Abe said "the relations between the two countries have recently intensified."
"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed the intention to develop Japanese-Russian relations more actively through frequent dialogue between the leaders of the two countries," the Japanese embassy said in its press release.
Abe said Japan intends to work more actively on the vital tasks of the international community as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (Japan will become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2016) and will seek to achieve mutual understanding with Russia in this context.
Abe "positively assessed the consistent development of dialogue and exchanges [between Russia and Japan] in a broad range of areas, including economics, security, cultural and human exchanges," the report says.
In the sphere of economics, considerable dialogue is taking place in areas such as energy conservation, city environment, medicine and agriculture, to which Russia attaches a lot of significance as well, Abe said.
The Japanese prime minister said exchanges are intensifying between representatives of Japanese and Russian companies and "there is a favorable situation for strengthening business ties."
"Prime Minister Abe expressed his intention to continue dialogue between the leaders of the two countries on the basis of the accumulation of such positive cooperation; it is important to talk with each other in this form for the progressive development of Japanese-Russian relations," the report says.
As regards the issue of signing a peace treaty, the press release issued by the Japanese embassy says that "the two leaders had a frank exchange of opinions to come up with a mutually acceptable solution to the problem of the northern territories on the basis of the agreement reached during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Russia in April 2013."