Putin, Abe promise cooperation amid Russia-Japan territorial disputes

Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed here on Thursday to cooperate in various areas, although territorial spats persist between the two countries.

Russia and Japan both claim a group of islands off Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.

"We discussed the subjects of joint economic activities in the Southern Kurils," said Putin at a joint press conference with Abe after their talks in the Kremlin.

Russia will arrange a trip for Japanese officials and businessmen to the disputed islands this summer to study specific cooperation opportunities, said Putin.

Putin said his country is ready to assist Japan in the restoration of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant and offer the latest technologies for cleaning contaminated soil and processing radioactive waste.

According to Putin, both sides discussed plans of increasing Russian energy supply to Japan and Japanese enterprises were encouraged to invest in Russia.

The decades-old territorial disputes have prevented Russia and Japan from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.

At the press conference, Abe said he and Putin were striving to conclude a peace treaty and hailed the agreements reached during their talks.

"Vladimir and I want to strengthen mutual trust between our peoples through a new approach that does not depend on the old ideas," said Abe.

To promote people-to-people exchanges, the two countries are planning to simultaneously hold the Year of Japan in Russia and the Year of Russia in Japan in 2018, Abe added. Endit