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Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of the Russian Federation Sergei Naryshkin made a working visit to Tokyo on July 4 and 5, 2011.

He met with Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, Japanese Parliament’s House of Representatives Deputy Seiji Maehara, and House of Representatives Deputy and Chair of the Japan-Russia Society Kunio Hatoyama, as well as public figures and business community leaders.

“We discussed a wide range of issues in bilateral relations and cooperation in various sectors. We spent a lot of time focusing on issues in economic cooperation, first and foremost in the energy sector,” Sergei Naryshkin noted following his meetings. The Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office emphasised that Russia is ready to increase fuel supplies to Japan, given that Japan’s energy sector was the sector hardest-hit by the tragic events in March this year.

At meetings in Tokyo, Mr Naryshkin also engaged in discussions of other issues of bilateral cooperation. “Recently, we’ve felt a new atmosphere in the dialogue between Russia and Japan; it has become more favourable to discussing complicated issues. Our relations are flourishing in all areas,” Sergei Naryshkin noted.

Mr Naryshkin awarded the Order of Friendship to House of Representatives Deputy and former Prime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama. “It is hard to overstate Mr Hatoyama’s role in the development of ‘public diplomacy,’ as chairman of the Japan-Russia society and chairman of the Japanese part of the steering committee for Russian culture festivals in Japan,” Sergei Naryshkin remarked, stressing that Yukio Hatoyama has always given a great attention to Russian-Japanese ties, thereby continuing the traditions of his political family, who also made significant contributions to the development of Russian-Japanese relations.

In addition, Sergei Naryshkin awarded the Order of Friendship For Major Input into the Development of Social and Humanitarian Russian-Japanese Ties to the head physician at the International Clinic in Tokyo Yevgeny Aksenov.

As part of his working visit to Tokyo, Mr Naryshkin visited the biggest Orthodox church in Japan, the Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do), where he met with the head of the Japanese Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Daniel of Tokyo and All Japan.