Japan’s Abe to visit Russia for Putin meeting

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Russia this week for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin and Tokyo said Tuesday, as the two sides look to make headway on a decades- old territorial dispute.

The Kremlin said talks set for Thursday will focus on “the state and prospects for development of Russo-Japanese cooperation in the political, trade and economic, and humanitarian spheres.”

The meeting follows on from Pu- tin’s first visit to Japan in 11 years last December, when the two leaders failed to resolve a disagreement over an island chain that has prevented their nations from signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II.

The Soviet Union seized the islands off Japan’s northern coast in 1945 in the closing days of the war.

Known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, they have been a thorn in relations ever since.

In Tokyo, Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga firmed Abe’s visit to Russia.

North Korea will also likely be on the agenda of the talks “given the current situation,” he said, referring to soaring tensions surrounding the hermit state’s nuclear and missile programs.

Both Russia and Japan have been part of a more- than- decade long multilateral effort to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. con-