Tokyo readies for Russian, Japanese leaders’ meeting at APEC summit

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is preparing for a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing on November 10-11, a source in the Japanese Foreign Ministry told TASS on Friday.
The Japanese prime minister also expects that the Russian leader will pay an official visit to Japan, although the timeframe for such a trip has not been yet agreed.
“The issue of holding a bilateral meeting of the two countries’ leaders in Beijing during the APEC summit is being coordinated, but has not been finally determined,” a ministry official said.
In case such a meeting takes place in Beijing, the leaders are expected to discuss a range of issues of the Russian-Japanese relationship and also international issues, the diplomat said.
Another diplomatic source in Tokyo told TASS that at the meeting in Beijing the Japanese premier could confirm that plans for an official visit of the Russian leader to Japan remain in force.
However, no specific date of such a visit could be currently announced amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the harsh stance of the United States towards Russia, the source said.
During the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February, Putin and Abe agreed that the Russian leader could arrive in Japan this fall. The preparations for the visit have been hindered by the events in Ukraine and a series of Western sanctions against Russia, which Tokyo joined as part of a common stance of Washington and its allies.