"We make it a point for the visit to have the purport it needs. For that, we must have significant documents-in particular, agreements-ready. As soon as we achieve that, we shall not need a long time to appoint an appropriate visit date," said Mr. Prikhodko.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, is visiting Japan, late this month, and he will debate a tentative schedule, added the presidential aide.
Japan is attaching an extraordinary importance to President Putin's visit, as it hopes for progress on the northern territory issue. Japan refers as "northern territories" to four disputed islands of the Smaller Kuril Archipelago, which the Soviet Union acquired after World War II with the entire Kuril Archipelago and the south part of Sakhalin. More than that, Japan ties the prospects for a peace treaty with Russia in with the dispute.
Messrs. Putin and Koizumi explicitly spoke up for all the six negotiators to go on with talks on the North Korean nuclear program in the available format, pointed out Mr. Prikhodko. "President Putin said Russia would be doing all it could to impel North Korea, as its partner, to carry on the negotiations in that very format."
Involving high-ranking Russian, North and South Korean, Chinese, US and Japanese diplomats, the talks opened in Beijing, August 2003. Three rounds have been held since, though a fourth, due September 2004, was thwarted by Pyongyang's boycott.
North Korea interrupted the negotiations with allusions to the USA being hostile to it. The Pyongyang government announced, February 10, that the country had developed nuclear weapons.
While at the conference table with President Putin, Mr. Koizumi pointed out last month's Japanese galas on the 150th establishment anniversary of diplomatic relations with Russia. He and Alexander Losyukov, Russian Ambassador to Japan, together attended a ceremony on the venue where the relations were established, 150 years ago, said the Prime Minister.
He thanked Mr. Putin for a message on the anniversary, in which the President pointed out the necessity to step up friendly and goodneighborly bilateral contacts.
As the conference was on, President Putin highlighted successful development of Russian-Japanese commerce and other economic contacts. "I am glad to see our contacts making dynamic progress. The trade turnover is assuredly coming close to a nine billion dollar mark," he said.
President Putin may attend a gala in which the foundation stone of a new automotive works will be laid, announced Mr. Prikhodko. The Japanese-based Toyota automotive mammoth will start its construction in the Leningrad Region, June or July next.
"As Mr. Koizumi has informed Vladimir Putin, the Toyota major intends to start building a works in the Leningrad Region," he said.
