Official website of the President of Russia

Документ   /

* * *

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: First of all, I'm very happy to see you. We have known each other for a long time. I remember our meeting in the early 2000s in Irkutsk. We enjoy a very good personal and working relationship.

The Russian-Japanese relations have seen significant progress in this period. Perhaps they have not been developing perfectly smoothly but that is only natural ­– life is always very complex and diverse.

On the whole, our economic relations have been expanding very successfully, including in the automotive industry, pharmaceuticals, energy and timber processing. I think Japan gets around 10% of liquefied natural gas produced in Russia. We could also consider developing agriculture cooperation.

”Our economic relations have been expanding very successfully, including in the automotive industry, pharmaceuticals, energy and timber processing.“

We are looking forward to the visit of the Prime Minister of Japan [Shinzo Abe]. I hope that the visit will take place. We are currently working on its programme. Please convey our warmest wishes to the Prime Minister and tell him that we are looking forward to his visit.

Special Envoy of the Japanese Government and Former Prime Minister of Japan Yoshiro Mori (retranslated): Thank you very much.

This is our first meeting since 2010, when we met at the opening ceremony of the Komatsu plant in Yaroslavl. Last week I met with Komatsu president, and he told me that business in Russia is very good and he is very pleased about that.

<…>