VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Armed Forces chief of staff and Ground Forces commander will visit Japan in the near future, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"On the eve of our meeting today, there were negotiations on the level of the leaders of the two countries' security councils. We arranged with Mr. Abe [Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe] for the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and the commander of the Ground Forces to visit Japan soon," Putin said following Russian-Japanese negotiations on Thursday.
Putin said he had invited Abe to take part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum at the end of May 2018. "And Shinzo accepted our invitation," he said.
In addition, the two agreed "to attend together the opening of the reciprocal Year of Russia in Japan and Year of Japan in Russia in Moscow on May 26, 2018."
Putin described the Russian-Japanese negotiations in Vladivostok as substantive and open. "They demonstrated our determination to constructively develop bilateral relations in various fields," he said.
"I must mention that we've recently managed to restore the operation of a number of mechanisms of the Russian-Japanese political dialogue. Consultations between the foreign and defense ministers in the 2+2 format were resumed in March," he said.