Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he intends to push forward towards a World War Two peace treaty with Russia, which has been stymied for decades by a territorial row, during a summit in Russia later this month.
Mr. Abe will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for discussions aimed at ending the row over a group of windswept islands seized by Soviet troops in the final days of the war.
He told a news conference that, while reaching an agreement would be difficult, he wanted to make as much progress as possible.