Min says Russia, Japan to think of new Kuril cooperation projects

MOSCOW, Jan 14 (PRIME) -- Russia and Japan will elaborate new projects of cooperation on the Kuril Islands to replace outdated unimpressive projects, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference on Monday after negotiations with the Japanese counterpart Taro Kono.

“The agreement reached a couple of years ago by the president (of Russia Vladimir Putin) and the prime minister (of Japan Shinzo Abe) on organization of joint economic activities on the Southern Kuril Islands is carried out but on a really modest, unimpressive scale. Five projects were earmarked the areas which are not groundbreaking at all,” Lavrov said.

He said that Russia and Japan will not discuss sovereignty of the islands.

Shinzo Abe said earlier in January that Japan still has claims on the Kuril Islands and no plans to evict Russians, but the Russian Foreign Ministry warned Japan’s ambassador to Russia about the comments.

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