Japan Foreign Minister urges Russia to free detained reporter

The 30-minute meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, was the first official in-person meeting between the Japanese and Russian foreign ministers since September 2021, although Motegi and Lavrov had a brief chat in the Philippines in July this year.
   
As the talks were the first since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Motegi mentioned the situation in the Eastern European country and urged Russia to take positive steps toward achieving a "just and lasting peace."
   
Another topic was Russian President Vladimir Putin's August visit to Etorofu, one of the four Moscow-controlled northwestern Pacific islands at the centre of the two countries' long-standing territorial row. Motegi reiterated Japan's view on the visit. The two top diplomats agreed to continue communication despite the strained relations.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the two foreign ministers held a brief meeting at Japan's request and discussed bilateral relations. Lavrov argued that Japan must abandon its unfriendly stance toward Moscow for dialogue between the two countries to resume.
   
The Russian announcement made no mention of the Japanese reporter's detention.
   
Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, detained the reporter for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper's Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk bureau in the Sakhalin region of Russia's Far East on Oct. 13 on suspicion of espionage.
   
The FSB claims that the reporter, acting under instructions from Japanese intelligence authorities, was gathering information on troops mobilised for Russia's invasion of Ukraine from the Kuril Islands, which Moscow claims include the disputed islands called the Northern Territories in Japan. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has denied this claim.
   

The reporter has been transferred to Moscow, where Japanese embassy staff held a consular meeting with him Monday, 13 days after he was detained. A consular treaty between Japan and the former Soviet Union and related documents stipulate that consular meetings must be held within four days of detention.
   
Also on Friday, Motegi met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Atlanta and expressed gratitude for the Department of State's condemnation of the Russian detention of the Hokkaido Shimbun reporter.
   
The two also exchanged views on the international situation, including in the Indo-Pacific region, and on Washington's growing pressure campaign against the International Criminal Court. They agreed to maintain close communication.
   
At a separate meeting, Motegi and his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, agreed that restoring free and safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, both key global trade waterways, is an urgent priority.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]