Russia, Japan to sign accords, Putin to meet with Japan PM
MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Russia and Japan plan to sign a series of agreements this week as part of the program for a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
Putin and Noda will meet on the sidelines of a planned Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok, Russia, on Friday and Saturday, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters.
The planned agreements would include an accord on measures against fish and seafood poaching in territorial waters, a memorandum of understanding between Russia's Gazprom and Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, and a contract to build a large timber complex in the Krasnoyarsk territory, Ushakov said.
The two leaders are going to discuss investment in energy production, in motor vehicle manufacturing, in shipbuilding, and under high-tech and innovative projects, including in the production of pharmaceuticals and agriculture, according to Ushakov. They will also consider building closer ties between individual Russian and Japanese regions.
Russia and Japan are involved in an intensive political dialogue, Ushakov said. Putin and Noda last met on June 18 in Los Cabos, during the last summit of the Group of 20, and in July the Russian president held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba in Sochi, Russia.
Putin and Noda will also raise cultural issues, chiefly in connection with a planned visit of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, to Japan on September 14-18. Kirill's planned trip marks the death centenary of Saint Nicholas of Japan, a Russian monk and priest who brought Eastern Orthodoxy to Japan.
At the same time, a sovereignty dispute about four Pacific islands continues to dog Russian-Japanese relations.
The four South Kuril Islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai - were annexed by the Soviet Union from Japan during World War II, and Japan demands them back.
Moscow and Tokyo still have not signed a peace treaty to put a formal end to their wartime confrontation as Japan makes its signature conditional on the return of the islands. Russia has been suggesting holding talks on a peace treaty but refuses to give the islands back.