Off the wire
• Brexit to put strain on Britain and test processes to their limits: report  • Legislators stress implementation of laws on environment, scientific achievements  • Spotlight: Artificial Intelligence wields increasing influence on U.S. politics  • 1st Ld Writethru: China's Xi lashes out at political cliques, election fraud  • Iceland president gives Independence Party chief mandate to form next gov't  • 1st LD: Iran's top leader opposes restoration of ties with U.S.  • Weather forecast for world cities -- Nov. 2  • 2nd LD-Writethru: Chinese premier arrives in Kyrgyzstan for official visit, SCO meeting  • CPC to send team to explain key session decisions  • Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- Nov. 2  
You are here: 　 Home

Moscow hopes Tokyo considers lifting anti-Russia sanctions

Xinhua, November 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Moscow hopes Tokyo will consider lifting its sanctions against Russia that have hindered the development of their economic and trade cooperation, as the two countries are now trying to mend ties, a senior Russian official said Wednesday during a visit to Japan.

"We hope that Japan will consider lifting restrictions ... because it negatively impacts the development of our economic cooperation and constrains the buildup of mutual trade," Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Russian Federation Council, or the upper house of parliament, was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Matviyenko said Tuesday that Russia was interested in joint projects with Japan in car manufacturing, pharmaceutics and the medical industry, as well as the high-tech sphere, particularly in developing its Siberia and the Far East region with Japanese investors.

She added that the Russian Federation Council is ready to provide necessary political and legal support for bilateral economic cooperation.

Japan, along with the United States and the European Union, has imposed economic sanctions on Russia since the Ukraine crisis in 2014, making their relations even colder amid the long-held territorial dispute over four Pacific islands.

Russian President Vladimir Putin postponed a planned visit to Japan in 2015 and high-level exchanges between the two sides stagnated for a time.

Bilateral ties appeared to begin to improve after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Putin in the Russian city of Sochi in May.

In September, the two leaders held a three-hour meeting on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, during which the two sides reached an agreement on Putin's visit to Japan in December. Endi