Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and they agreed to advance negotiations for a postwar peace treaty between their countries.

Kishida told reporters he expressed his desire to develop Japan-Russia relations in a mutually beneficial manner, and that Putin said he wants to continue dialogue on a range of bilateral issues.

Japan and Russia have a decades-old territorial dispute over islands lying to the northeast of Hokkaido that has prevented them from signing a peace treaty since the end of World War II.