Moscow And Tokyo Reach Principled Agreement On A Summit

Moscow and Tokyo have reached a principled agreement on a meeting between President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Prime Minister of Japan Unichiro Koizumi during the summit of the participating states of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held on October 20-21 in Shanghai, said Alexander Losyukov, deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, on Tuesday. He heads the Russian delegation to Tokyo that is attending Russian-Japanese consultations at the foreign ministry level. Losyukov assumes that the conversation between the leaders of the two countries in Shanghai will mainly be devoted to the counter-terrorism struggle. The deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry also reported that the sides are planning a visit to Japan by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in the first half of 2002. A visit to Tokyo by Igor Ivanov, Russian Foreign Minister, and a meeting of the Russian-Japanese inter-government trade and economic commission have been planned for next November-December.