Germany on Sunday backed Japan's bid to seek top-level bilateral talks with Moscow to settle the long-simmering territorial dispute over Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, a Japanese official said, contrasting sharply with the United States, which had cautioned against the move.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Schloss Elmau, south of Munich, that talks with Russian leaders on Japan's claim to the small islands are key to settling the dispute. The territorial row remains unsettled 70 years after the end of World War II.
The Abe government is hoping to invite President Vladimir Putin to visit Japan later this year.