OREANDA-NEWS. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to bring negotiations on the conclusion of a peace treaty to a new level.

“I want to have an open dialogue with President Vladimir Putin to take the negotiations on a peace treaty to a new level”, he told reporters on Wednesday before flying to Vladivostok to participate in the Eastern Economic Forum. The head of the Japanese government noted that "the agreements reached in 2016 in Nagato together with the President of the Russian Federation are being implemented", and expressed hope that the meeting in Vladivostok will contribute to their further implementation.

In addition, the politician noted that soon joint economic measures will be introduced on the territory of the "northern islands", as the southern Kuril Islands are called in Japan. As Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters earlier, Putin and Abe will meet on September 5 on the sidelines of the EEF and discuss, among other things, the themes of the peace treaty.

From the middle of the last century, Russia and Japan have been intermittently negotiating a peace treaty following the results of World War II. Last November, Putin and Abe agreed to intensify this process on the basis of a bilateral Joint Declaration of October 19, 1956. Both states periodically consult on subjects of joint economic activity in the southern Kuril Islands in five districts: aquaculture, greenhouses, tourism, wind energy and waste processing. The parties see the establishment of cooperation in these areas as an important step towards the conclusion of a peace treaty. In June this year, the Russian Federation and Japan agreed on two business models for waste management and tourism for sale in the Kuril Islands.