Japan, Russia Bear 'Great Responsibility' for Prosperity in East Asia

Russia and Japan need to strengthen bilateral dialogue to increase stability and prosperity in East Asia, new Japanese ambassador to Russia Toyohisa Kozuki said Monday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — "It is necessary that the actively progressing political dialogue [between Moscow and Tokyo] should become stronger and more enduring," Toyohisa Kozuki told RIA Novosti.

He emphasized that the two nations were important partners that bore "great responsibility for the stability and prosperity in the East Asian region."

Relations between the neighbor countries were reenergized in 2013 when the Japanese prime minister visited Russia for the first time in a decade.

Russian-Japanese ties further improved in the second half of 2015, with their leaders holding talks on a wide range of issues on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey.