Putin, Abe agree to intensify talks on Russia-Japan peace treaty

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to visit Russia at the beginning of 2019, he said on Wednesday after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Singapore. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the leaders’ meeting that Putin and Abe had agreed on intensifying Russian-Japanese talks on the peace treaty based on the 1956 declaration, TASS reports. “We will solve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty based on trust” built with Putin, Abe said. The PM said he had a “substantive discussion” with Putin on the peace treaty. The talks were held only in the presence of interpreters, he noted. The Japanese premier expressed readiness to jointly with the Russian president put an end to the situation with the lack of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia, which has lasted for more than 70 years.