Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Monday to advance negotiations on reaching a solution to a long-standing territorial dispute that has prevented the two countries from concluding a postwar peace treaty.
As part of such efforts, they agreed to continue talks on the sidelines of international conferences in November, including the Group of 20 summit in Turkey and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the Philippines, according to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato.
Meeting on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Abe and Putin also agreed to look for the "best time" for Putin to visit Japan, Kato told reporters.