Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Tokyo, April 15, 2016

Mr Minister,

I am sincerely pleased to be here at your invitation. I appreciate it. We very much value our good-neighbourly relations and regular contacts, which have intensified lately, as you have said, at all levels, and at the top level as well. President of Russia Vladimir Putin stressed this during his Direct Line yesterday and he proceeds from the fact that he is on very good terms with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe and would be glad to meet with him again. I would like to use our good relations so that this next meeting could be well-prepared. We would like to develop cooperation with your country along all avenues and in all areas in keeping with the agreements reached by our leaders.