Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and her Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, agreed Sunday to arrange for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit Russia in January, a Japanese official said.
In a meeting held in New York on the sidelines of the annual session of the U.N. General Assembly, Kawaguchi and Ivanov also agreed that she and Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko would jointly chair a bilateral forum on trade and economic issues in Moscow on Oct. 14.
President Vladimir Putin invited Koizumi to Russia when they met in Canada last June during the Group of Eight summit. They agreed to set the visit for December or January.
Kawaguchi told Ivanov the two countries should accelerate efforts to draw up an action plan to promote bilateral ties so the initiative can be adopted during Koizumi's visit, according to the Japanese official.