Abe to attend UN General Assembly in NY, to meet Putin on sidelines

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend the UN General Assembly from Saturday where he will hold talks with a number of other country's leaders, before visiting Jamaica later next week, according to his top government spokesperson Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that the Japanese leader will give a speech at the Assembly, which is gathering for its 70th session on Tuesday and will also address a UN summit on Sunday concerned with sustainable development. Abe is also planning to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, government officials have confirmed.

Meetings between Abe and leaders from Qatar, Iran, Jordan, Kenya and Ukraine have also been scheduled, government officials said Friday, as well as with those from Brazil, Germany and India, specifically regarding Japan's push to reform the UN Security Council.

But sources close to Abe have said that the meeting with Putin on Monday will be of great significance to the Japanese leader, with government officials here stating that the meeting could pave the way for an official visit to Japan by the Russian president later this year.

They said that during their meeting on the sidelines of the Assembly in New York a number of key issues will be discussed, including an ongoing territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, economic cooperation, the Syrian conflict and issues pertaining to Ukraine.

After a U.S.-led move to slap sanctions on Russia following its intervention in Ukraine, which Japan seconded, an official visit to Japan by Putin has been delayed as diplomacy between the two countries became frosty following the sanctions, but as relations thaw, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, earlier this week agreed to restart ministerial level talks on a peace treaty.

The territorial dispute concerning four islands located north of Hokkaido, which are believed by Japan to be a part of the Nemuro Sub-prefecture of Hokkaido and are referred to by Japan as the Northern Territories, but are called the Southern Kurils in Russia, which also claims and administers the islands, has prevented the two sides from concluding a peace treaty at the end of WWII and impacted bilateral relations.

Along with both countries' foreign ministers, Japan's National Security Secretariat, Shotaro Yachi, and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev also agreed this week that both countries need to resume dialogue at ministerial and other levels, with Abe himself stating he is keen to resolve the territorial rift between the two countries.

The Japanese leader's meeting with Putin will be the first since they met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in November, but as yet it remains unclear whether Abe will meet with leaders from East Asia, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is currently on a state visit to the U.S., and South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

The Japanese leader will return home on Friday following a trip to Jamaica, his office said. Endi