Japanese FM Confirms Russian, Japanese Diplomats to Meet on February

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov will meet with Japan’s special envoy for relations with Russia, Chikahito Harada, next Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said, confirming media reports.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – On Saturday, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported that Harada and Morgulov were due to discuss the bilateral visits of the countries’ leaders on February 15.

According to the Kyodo news agency, Kishida announced the upcoming consultations in Tokyo at a press conference on Tuesday, confirming the course "for the continuation of preparations for the highest-level talks between Russia and Japan."

On Friday, Japanese media reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could come to Russia with an unofficial visit in late April to early May 2016. According to the reports, during his visit, Abe could meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin was due to travel to Japan in the fall of 2014, but the crisis in Ukraine and Moscow’s strained relations with the West caused the trip to be postponed. A visit was then planned for 2015, but the two sides never announced a set date.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on the sidelines of the November 2015 G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, the two leaders discussed Putin's long-anticipated visit to Tokyo.