Moscow signals possible top diplomats' talks with Japan in July
Muneo Suzuki says Russia may be open to a Motegi-Lavrov meeting at ASEAN-related talks, without making sanctions relief a precondition.
- A senior Russian diplomat told Japanese lawmaker Muneo Suzuki that Moscow is ready to arrange a meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and Japan.
- The proposed talks could take place in July on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in the Philippines.
- Russia is reportedly not setting any preconditions for the meeting, such as requiring Japan to lift its sanctions over the Ukraine invasion.
- If it occurs, this would be the first foreign ministerial meeting between the two nations since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Japanese ruling party lawmaker Muneo Suzuki said Russia could prepare a July meeting between the foreign ministers of Japan and Russia, citing remarks by a senior Russian diplomat.
Suzuki, a member of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan’s parliament, held talks in Moscow on Monday (May 4) with Andrey Rudenko, Russia’s deputy foreign minister responsible for Asian affairs, and other Russian officials.
According to Suzuki, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, Rudenko said Moscow would be ready to arrange talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi “if Japan hopes” to hold such a meeting.
The possible talks would take place in July on the sidelines of a series of foreign ministers’ meetings linked to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the Philippines, Suzuki said.
Suzuki also said the Russian side was not considering any conditions for the proposed bilateral meeting, including a requirement that Japan lift sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Should the Motegi-Lavrov meeting go ahead, it would be the first foreign ministerial meeting between Japan and Russia since February 2022, when Russia began its full-scale military aggression against Ukraine.
Russia appears to be testing Japan’s response by indicating a willingness to ease its position towards Tokyo, even as relations between the two countries have sharply worsened.
Moscow has unilaterally halted peace treaty negotiations with Japan, citing Tokyo’s sanctions. Those talks included the long-running territorial dispute over four Russian-controlled islands in the northwestern Pacific.
The islands were taken from Japan by the former Soviet Union at the end of World War II. The dispute has kept Tokyo and Moscow from concluding a peace treaty to formally end their wartime hostilities.
Suzuki arrived in Moscow on Sunday, making his first visit to Russia since late last year. It is his fourth trip to the country since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
During Monday’s talks, Suzuki urged Russia to agree to resume a programme allowing former Japanese residents of the islands to visit family graves there. He noted that this year marks 70 years since the normalisation of diplomatic ties under the 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration.
Suzuki is scheduled on Tuesday to meet Mikhail Galuzin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister in charge of issues related to former Soviet republics, to discuss matters connected to the Ukraine crisis. Galuzin is a former Russian ambassador to Japan.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
