Russian-Japanese cooperation potential is very big, Tokyo believes

The potential for cooperation between Japan and Russia is "very big," said Japanese Cabinet spokesman Tatsuo Arima, who headed the Japanese delegation at the Russian-Japanese forum, which ended Saturday in Irkutsk, a city in East Siberia.

According to the Japanese spokesman, the purpose of such forums is to "bring home to the public in the two countries the importance of promoting relations on the way to signing a peace treaty." Relations with Russia are the daily care of the Japanese leadership, Tatsuo Arima said at the closing ceremony.

He also noted that joint energy projects for oil and gas delivery from East Siberia and the Far East had a great role to play in co-operation between the two countries. In his view, these projects are of strategic importance for the whole Asian-Pacific Region.