PRESS RELEASE
President Putin Meets Japanese Prime Minister Abe in Beijing
Nov. 9, 2014 (EIRNS)—The APEC summit in Beijing, now under way, provided the venue for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today—a meeting which may signal a reversal of the chill in the relations between the two countries.
Russian relations with Japan have soured over recent months in the context of the Japanese adoption of Obama/European sanctions against Russia, justified by the lying claims of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
According to a wire put out by the official Russian news service Itar-TASS, Putin and Abe "exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine." They also discussed the potential for President Putin to visit Japan and to pick up work on a peace treaty (pending since 1945).
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov also told journalists that they "discussed a detailed list of bilateral projects of trade and economic cooperation that was drawn after the Japanese prime minister’s latest visit to Russia."
The Putin-Abe meeting was preceded by discussions between the trade ministers of both countries, where they apparently agreed, according to the Russian Minister, to find way to work around the sanctions. "For political reasons they cannot distance themselves from the sanctions regime," said Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukayev, but "without breaching it formally, (they are trying) to find ways for development of trade and investments."
So far there are no specifics on the other major "peace-making" visit that has been mooted for this Beijing meeting, a meeting between Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
