Tokyo rejects Putin’s proposal to increase trade between Russia and Japan to $30 billion
Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal made to increase trade between Russia and Japan to $30 billion made to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the talks on the Kuril Islands was not greeted by Japan.
The Japanese side did not give consent to Putin's plan, which called for an increase in investments in the Russian economy, to replenish it with technologies and to increase mutual trade by 1.5 times, the official representative of the Japanese Foreign Ministry told Kyodo.
“Mr. Putin just noted a number. But this does not mean that the Japanese side has agreed with it,” the diplomat said.
As reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for almost an hour and a half, Putin and Abe discussed the prospects of concluding a peace treaty, which depends on the fate of the islands of the South Kuril Ridge. However, the sides were only able to agree on instructing the foreign ministers to continue negotiations. Sergey Lavrov and Taro Kono will hold a meeting in mid-February at the annual conference on international security in Munich.
Before his visit to Russia, Abe had said that he was “determined” to conclude a peace treaty, noting that Japan was ready to accept the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai together with the residents of the islands and hoped for their support.
Following the talks with the Japanese prime minister, Putin complained about the low level of Japanese investments in the Russian economy. The total amount of Japanese investments is $ 2.2 billion. “The potential of cooperation between the two countries has not been fully exploited,” Putin said.
In this regard, they discussed the possibility of "ambitious plans to expand economic ties", "investment and technological cooperation”.
In particular, Russia is interested Japanese deep-sea oil and gas exploration technologies. Due to US sanctions prohibiting the supply of equipment to Russia for offshore work, Japan Oil, Gas & Metals National Corp., Inpex Corp. and Marubeni Corp were forced to start a joint project with Rosneft on the Far Eastern shelf.