Japanese Prime Minister to Visit Russia at the Beginning of 2019

"We agreed with prime minister [Shinzo Abe] that he will visit Russia at the beginning of next year. Maybe I will get a chance to visit Japan as well," Putin said.

He reminded that Russia and Japan are ready to return to discussing the Joint Declaration from 19 October 1956 which established truce between the two countries and restored bilateral diplomatic relations.

Putin said he discussed with Abe the importance of creating new mechanisms of cooperation and to increase the level of trust between the two sides by expanding humanitarian contacts and economic ties, TASS news agency reported.

He said that they also agreed with Abe on the new mechanism for resolving the issue of the peace treaty. "Regarding new mechanisms, we agreed that from our side, for example, a special presidential envoy will be appointed, and from the Japanese side - the special envoy of the prime minister. This process will be directly supervised by the foreign ministers," Putin said. He said that more details on this process will be provided later.

On December 1 Putin and Abe held a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina. Abe said at the meeting that he hopes to discuss in detail the issue of signing a peace treaty between the two countries on the basis of earlier agreements.

Message end/