Posted on 10/31/2013 6:43:52 PM PDT by TexGrill
Sharing a growing concern over China’s military buildup, Japan and Russia are set to deepen bilateral ties by holding their first so-called two-plus-two meeting of foreign and defense ministers Saturday in Tokyo.
The four ministers are expected to discuss ways to broaden security cooperation and deepen mutual trust amid the changing security landscape in Asia. Japan hopes as well for a breakthrough in the territorial stalemate over four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, a dispute that has prevented the signing of a peace treaty for the past 68 years.
Russia, which shares a border more than 4,000 km long with China, is the more eager for the talks due to its increasing uneasiness about China’s military buildup, pundits say.
Compared with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who paid scant attention to Japan and visited Kunashiri Island — one of the four in dispute — in November 2010, sparking criticism from Tokyo, President Vladimir Putin values better security ties with Japan, experts said.
Shinji Hyodo, head of the America, Europe and Russia division at the National Institute for Defense Studies, said that after Putin became president in May last year, Russia began asking Japan to cooperate on security, repeatedly broaching the subject at foreign ministerial meetings.
(Excerpt) Read more at japantimes.co.jp ...
come on dude! what’s your point?
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