Russian-Japanese consultations in Tokyo to discuss formation of joint working group on combating terrorism

The first Russian-Japanese consultations on the fight against terrorism opened in the Japanese capital on Wednesday.

The head of the Russian delegation, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Safonov, told reporters that summing up the two-day consultations it was envisaged to achieve an agreement on creating a joint Russian-Japanese group on the fight against terrorism.

According to Anatoly Safonov, so far Russia has set up joint groups with the United States, China, Great Britain, India, Canada and Pakistan.

Answering the question of RIA Novosti, Anatoly Safonov pointed out that the Russian delegation includes, apart from diplomats, representatives of the Federal Security Service, frontier guards and customs officers.

"We also plan to discuss questions of a political character and questions of cooperation between the secret services of the two countries," pointed out the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

According to his data, the participants in the consultations intend to discuss questions of combating illegal trade in drugs and weapons, money laundering and some other problems which are directly connected to the task of the fight against international terrorism.

Anatoly Safonov did not exclude the possibility that the ways of cooperation between Russia and Japan in the fight against terrorism will be discussed by the leaders of the two countries during the official visit to Russia by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi scheduled for January next year.

Anatoly Safonov pointed to the fact that last year "there were examples of cooperation between the secret services of Russia and Japan." "Good contacts were established during the operations against the Aum Shinri Kyo sect," said the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.