Tokyo, August 5: The government of Japan seeks to arrange an official by the nation’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Moscow in September, Tokyo’s chief government spokesperson reported on Monday.
According to Dawn news reports, Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga, addressing a media conference, told journalists the leaders from Russia and Japan would require to hold talks face-to-face to resolve the pertaining “issues between the two nations”.
Japanese foreign ministry has on Friday called an official visit by Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister, to an island commonly claimed by both Russia and Japan “extremely regrettable”, appealing Moscow to pursue some constructive and stern actions to advance bilateral and diplomatic relations.
Japan on Friday said it would be removing South Korea from Japan’s “white list” of fast-track export status, while drawing threats from Seoul’s firm and further worsening relations that have already been stressed by a trade dispute and compensation issue of wartime forced labourers.
Industry minister Hiroshige Seko, addressing media briefing, said the decision was upheld for national security concerns after the cabinet meeting and that it wasn’t intended to cause harm to Japan-South Korea bilateral ties.
Later on Friday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in will hold a cabinet meeting to discuss Japanese stance over the matter, the president’s official said.
Japan said the compensation issue has been settled by a 1965 pact that normalized relations between the two sides.
Seko has said Tokyo was not willing to hold direct talks with Seoul until it corrected its statement made out in July talks between bureaucrats of the two sides.
Also read: Japanese cabinet approves removing South Korea from ‘white-list’ fast-track export status