Meeting in Moscow

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow over the weekend. Mr. Fukuda tried to establish a good rapport both with Mr. Putin, who will step down soon but is expected to wield power as the next prime minister, and Mr. Medvedev, who will attend the July G8 summit in Hokkaido as Russian president.

Mr. Fukuda and Mr. Putin made no concrete progress toward resolving a territorial dispute over the Russian-held islands off Hokkaido. But the two leaders did commit to continue bilateral talks on the issue with a view toward concluding a peace treaty.

The two leaders also agreed to raise bilateral relations "to a higher dimension" that will contribute toward improving the stabilization and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region, and to hold Japan-Russia summits more frequently.

Furthermore, the two leaders decided to pursue joint cooperation in the fields of energy saving and environmental protection, and to move ahead with a pioneering project in which a Japanese government-affiliated corporation and a Russian oil company will jointly explore new oil fields in Irkutsk, East Siberia. Both Mr. Putin and Mr. Medvedev said that Russia will cooperate in the establishment of a new international framework to combat global warming for a period in and after 2013.

The oil-development project benefits both countries. Russia wants Japanese investment to develop the region and Japan hopes that oil from East Siberia will enhance its energy security. Japan also hopes that expanded economic cooperation will foster an environment that is conducive to finding a "mutually acceptable solution" to the Northern Territories issue.

Mr. Fukuda said that in his next meeting with Mr. Medvedev, it will be possible for Japan and Russia to agree to work together in a "forward looking" manner to solve the territorial dispute. Japan needs to scrutinize its past approaches to the issue, which have failed to bear fruit, and carefully push the talks forward.