Senior Japanese and Russian officials agreed Wednesday to continue talks on a post-World War II peace treaty, with the two countries yet to formally end hostilities due to a territorial dispute over Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido.
The next round of talks will be held in Moscow, said Chikahito Harada, the Japanese government representative and ambassador in charge of Japan-Russia relations, after meeting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov in Tokyo.
Harada expressed hope the next talks would be arranged at an early date, possibly before the proposed meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok in September.