Japan, Russia agree to prepare for Putin's visit to Japan

Japan Policy & Politics, March 1, 2004

MOSCOW, Feb. 27 Kyodo

Japanese and Russian officials agreed Friday in a meeting to speed up preparations for a visit to Japan by Russian President Vladimir Putin later this year on the assumption that he will be reelected in March.

Ichiro Komatsu, the Japanese Foreign Ministry's director general of the European Affairs Bureau, and Mikhail Bely, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's 2nd Asian Department, also agreed that the two will work out details of the Putin visit, along with a projected visit to Russia by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi in the first half of the year, possibly in May.

On the dispute over the Russian-held group of islands off Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories by the Japanese and the southern Kuriles by the Russians, Russia promised it will consider Japan's request to allow the children and the grandchildren of the former residents of the islands to visit the islands, in addition to former residents.

The islands of Shikotan, Kunashiri, Etorofu and the Habomai group of islets were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. The dispute has prevented the two countries from concluding a peace treaty.