Tokyo and Moscow have agreed to enhance cooperation in developing Russia's Far East through joint projects in such fields as energy, agriculture and infrastructure, government officials said.
The agreement reached Tuesday at a meeting in Tokyo comes as Japanese officials are hoping, by advancing bilateral economic cooperation, to make progress on their demand for the return of four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido that were taken by Soviet forces at the end of the war.
At a meeting of the Japan-Russia Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Issues, Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba pointed out the importance of resolving the territorial dispute, which has prevented the two countries from concluding a formal postwar peace treaty, a Japanese official said.