Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and replies to media questions at a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida following their talks, Tokyo, April 15, 2016

Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank my colleague, Foreign Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida, for his invitation to visit your beautiful country, for your hospitality.

I would like to confirm straight away, this time in front of this audience, what I said to my colleague when we met. We express heartfelt condolences in connection with the earthquake in the island of Kyushu that claimed human lives and caused significant destruction. We are always ready to come to the rescue in such situations if our Japanese neighbours need such help.

Our talks have been constructive and comprehensive. I would say that they were held in an atmosphere of openness and confidence. We share the opinion on the necessity to strengthen cooperation between Russia and Japan, an opinion that such cooperation meets the long-term interests of our nations. We have noted with satisfaction that recently not only the top and high level political dialogue intensified, but so did the contacts between our security councils, in the economy and trade, parliamentary and humanitarian exchanges.

Naturally, we focused on the preparations for the visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Russia. We proceed from the assumption that contacts to be made during this visit will give momentum to promoting our relations in all areas in accordance with the 2013 Joint Declaration of the two countries’ leaders and their subsequent agreements.

We paid special attention to our cooperation in trade, economic and investment areas. Recently, several very important meetings were held with the participation of industry-specific ministers of the two countries and representatives of the business community. We have agreed to continue this work within the framework of the Intergovernmental Commission and its subcommissions. We have also agreed to continue and even step up the preparation of a number of bilateral agreements, including those in the areas of investment regime regulations, labour relations, and social insurance.

We agreed to continue work on all the aspects of the peace treaty. Russia’s stance, which we have reiterated, is well known. This stance rests on the universal recognition of the results of World War II. However, we are ready for a dialogue in any format. This was asserted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the course of his “Direct Line” yesterday. Several rounds of consultations between our deputies were held in accordance with instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. We have agreed today that the next round will be held following Mr Abe’s visit to the Russian Federation. As President Putin stressed yesterday, in order to find a mutually acceptable solution, cooperation should be stepped up in all areas without exceptions, and bilateral mechanisms set up for this purpose should be engaged in full. We are ready for that.

All this certainly presupposes further cooperation between Russia and Japan in the area of foreign policy. This is particularly important today, taking into account that Japan was elected a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for a two-year term. We hold regular consultations between respective Foreign Ministry departments, which entail a very useful exchange of opinions. I would like us to make the next step and proceed from a simple exchange of opinions to agreeing our approaches to topical international issues. This concerns, among others, a very complicated situation regarding the efforts to find solution to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. We share the opinion that Pyongyang should stop irresponsible moves, that the DPRK should realise the futility of its attempts to make the world community recognize the nuclear status of that country. At the same time, Russia believes it important not to try to use Pyongyang’s irresponsible actions as a pretext for building up armaments to Northeast Asia, deploying a segment of the US global missile defence system there. We are confident that the solution to the Korean Peninsula issue can only be achieved through political and diplomatic efforts.

We have agreed to continue consultations between our ministries on another topical issue: the situation in the Middle East and North Africa in the context of thwarting terrorists’ attempts to occupy new territories and try to establish control over the region, and in the context of settling the multiplying crises in the region on the basis of a national dialogue and agreement between all the parties involved without external interference.

With regard to the interest in the Ukrainian crisis that our Japanese colleagues have started to express, we will certainly continue to give a detailed situation analysis concerning the breach of the Minsk Agreements due to Kiev’s inability to take responsibility for its words. 

On the whole, the agenda of President Putin’s forthcoming meeting with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe looks full and contains both issues concerning our bilateral relations and international matters. In conclusion, I would like to ask my colleague to visit Russia at any time convenient for him.

Question (to both ministers): You said that during the meeting you discussed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s forthcoming unofficial visit to Russia. Has the schedule and programme of the visit been determined yet, as well as the place of this meeting?

Sergey Lavrov: Preparations for the visit are being conducted with the Foreign Ministry’s participation but the final agreements in organisational and protocol aspects, including the dates, will be announced by the Russian President’s Executive Office in coordination with the Japanese Prime Minister’s Executive Office, so it will take some time.

Question (to both ministers): Japan’s position is as follows: a peace treaty between Russia and Japan should necessarily include the settlement of territorial issues. Does Russia believe that the settlement of the territorial issue should be tackled independently of the peace treaty? You said that today’s meeting showed aspirations for the future. Taking both parties’ positions into consideration, what discussion was held on the subject? Could you say a few words about this and state your personal opinion of this meeting? Can we expect the leaders of the two countries to meet each other halfway at their meeting?

Sergey Lavrov: We did not go into detail on the substance of the talks today. There is a tool for this at the level of our deputies. As we announced, the next round of such consultations will take place shortly after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Russia. As I said, in this matter Russia is motivated by its well-known position based on international law, including the UN Charter, which affirms the results of World War II, and also on all the existing agreements between Russia and Japan, first of all on the latest agreements reached by President Putin and his Japanese colleagues, and the only document ratified by our two countries – the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956. It determines specific tasks concerning the sequence of steps and further actions. We will proceed from this.

As I said, so as to move forward (which is our wish) it is necessary to radically improve the atmosphere in our relations, including by lifting the artificial barriers for a comprehensive development of relations in all areas without exception, and by fostering closer cooperation on the international stage.

Question: Russia and China have submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council aimed at countering and preventing chemical attacks by terrorists in Syria and neighbouring countries. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin raised the issue of stationing independent observers on the border with Turkey to monitor terrorist supply routes. Will this point be included in the resolution? Is there concern that other members of the UN Security Council might be opposed to the document?

Sergey Lavrov: Two or three years ago, when reports appeared about chemical weapons being used in Syria, the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons established the OPCW Fact Finding Mission. The mission had a mandate to ascertain whether chemical agents indeed were used but it had no powers to find out who could have used them. At the time, our Western partners were inclined to blame everything on Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Nevertheless, nobody could provide conclusive evidence. Subsequently, last year, a great deal of facts accumulated suggesting with a good share of certainty that terrorists not only have access to chemical substances but are setting up their production. It became impossible to stay away from addressing the issue of how cases of this kind should be investigated. Then the UN Security Council, in collaboration with the OPCW, passed a resolution establishing the Joint Investigative Mechanism. There are media reports saying that militants in Syria and Iraq have set up and are actively expanding the production of toxic chemical agents. A new resolution put forward by Russia and China is aimed at making this investigative mechanism more efficient.

The resolution that we have proposed is not directly related to the issue of the porosity of the Turkish border, across which, according to observers on the ground, militants and weapons are moving in one direction and the flow of various kinds of contraband, reduced following the operations by the Russian Aerospace Forces but still present, is moving in the opposite direction. We regularly raise this issue with our partners, who are interested in resolving the Syria crisis, including the Americans, as Turkey is a member of the US-led counterterrorist coalition. US representatives assure us that they are also concerned about the border problem and that they are working with Ankara to resolve the problem. However, since Turkey denies that the problem exists we propose (so far informally) a draft resolution or another decision to encourage Turkey to invite independent international observers to its territory to monitor the border situation on the ground. There is no other option, because the Syrian side of the border between the two countries is controlled by ISIS. Naturally, such international observers can only be deployed at the invitation of the Turkish authorities. We highlight this issue, including at the UN, in the hope that our Western allies will exert pressure on Ankara and obtain a concrete response from it.

Sergey Lavrov (adds to Fumio Kishida’s answer): I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity to thank our Japanese colleagues for endorsing another resolution (not of the UN Security Council, but of the UNESCO Executive Board), which was adopted a couple of days ago on the Russian initiative and is related to the need to save Palmyra and other cultural heritage sites in Syria. This decision was adopted by consensus. It welcomes the liberation of Palmyra from terrorists. As soon as the security situation permits, a UNESCO expert mission will be sent to Palmyra and areas around it to assess the damage that has been caused, as well as the work that needs to be carried out to restore this precious landmark. In addition, an international fund will be established to support corresponding efforts. Russia will contribute to this fund. Considering Japan’s reputation as an active international cooperation donor, we hope that it will also make its contribution.