Russian President Vladimir Putin (1st r) and Japanese Prime Minister Yasao Fukuda (2nd l) attend a meeting in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow on April 26.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda joined Russia’s leaders on Saturday in praising improved ties and pledging to further negotiations over the disputed Kuril Islands, AFP reported.
President Vladimir Putin, due to become prime minister after leaving the Kremlin on May 7, told Fukuda at a presidential residence outside Moscow that relations had substantially improved.
“In the last two or three years we managed to change our relations in a qualitative manner,“ Putin said.
Fukuda, who went on to meet with Putin’s newly-elected successor Dmitry Medvedev, also said that “cooperation is developing“ ahead of July’s Group of Eight (G8) summit in Japan.

Unsolved Problems
Topping the agenda were energy projects, trade, the G8 talks, and a six-decades-old dispute over the Kuril Islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.
Japan and Russia have never signed a peace treaty formally ending World War II due to Tokyo’s claim to the four islands off its northern coast that were seized by Soviet troops in 1945 and are now controlled by Russia.
Putin signalled goodwill, saying “the dialogue on a peace treaty is continuing and we will create all the necessary conditions for going forward on that path“.
“We are perfectly conscious of the fact that many unsolved problems remain and we are all the more happy to see you here and to continue our dialogue,“ he added.
Fukuda was also hoping the visit, his first to Russia since being elected prime minister last September, would help establish a personal rapport with the incoming Medvedev.
“This meeting is a good chance to get strong personal relations up and running,“ news agency ITAR-TASS reported Fukuda as saying.
Despite the Kurils dispute, trade soared 65 percent last year to $20.1 billion (13 billion euros), according to Kremlin figures.
Putin said that since 2003, trade volume had increased five-fold.
Putin is expected to maintain influence in foreign affairs as prime minister. However, it will be his successor Medvedev who attends the G8 summit on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, where climate change and food security top the agenda.
Climate change presents “a huge opportunity“ for Japan and Russia to become close partners, a Japanese government official told AFP ahead of Fukuda’s arrival in Moscow. Japan wants to buy carbon credits from Russia under the Kyoto protocol to offset its greenhouse gas emissions.

Major Role
Fukuda praised Russia’s role in Asia and said it should be expanded.
“There are difficult problems in this region, including the problem of North Korea. We have to get over these problems... and Russia has a major role in this,“ he was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS.
By the start of 2009, natural gas from Russia’s huge Sakhalin fields will supply 8.5 percent of Japan’s imports, and nuclear energy projects are also under discussion.
Japanese investment in Russia reached $3.1 billion last year.
The Russian Space Agency signed a cooperation agreement with a Japanese space research institute last year. Russian and Japanese companies are also working on a joint project to lay fibre-optic cables across Russia to improve data transmission speeds.
Underlining cultural ties between the two countries, Fukuda sat in on a Japanese language performance at a Moscow school Saturday where he was presented with flowers.

The electoral road to the White House favors Democrats this fall--either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton--and has Republican John McCain playing defense to thwart a presidential power shift, AP said.
A downtrodden economy, the war in Iraq and a public call for change have created an Electoral College outlook and a political environment filled with extraordinary opportunity for the Democrats and enormous challenge for the GOP nominee-in-waiting.
Both parties count on victory in dozens of states that long have voted their way.
The competition to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win is expected to play out primarily in 14 states. All but one saw the greatest action in 2004. The exception is Virginia, a longtime Republican stronghold where Democrats have made inroads.
Eight of the states went for President Bush four years ago, including the crown jewels Ohio and Florida.
Six, including big-prize Pennsylvania, voted for Democrat John Kerry.

The European Union hopes to launch talks on a wide-ranging political deal with Russia on Tuesday despite mounting tensions over trade, energy and foreign policy, said DPA.
At a meeting in Luxembourg, the foreign ministers of the bloc’s 27 member states are “expected to adopt ... negotiating directives for a new agreement to provide a comprehensive framework for EU-Russia relations,“ officials from the EU presidency, which chairs such meetings, said.
Such a decision would allow the EU’s executive, the European Commission, to begin talks with the Russian government on a political deal covering cooperation and consultation on a range of issues, from energy and security policy to education and scientific research.
Relations between Russia and the EU are currently governed by a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) signed with the government of Boris Yeltsin in 1997 and designed to run for 10 years.

Australia will begin withdrawing 200 troops from nearby East Timor on Sunday because security in the restive nation has improved since rebel soldiers wounded the president, the prime minister said.
Sunday’s withdrawal will reduce Australia’s troop commitment there to 750--the same level as before East Timor’s President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot in February outside his home near the capital, Dili, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a statement Saturday.
“This drawdown in Australian forces reflects the improved security situation,“ Rudd said.
Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, nearly died in the Feb. 11 attack by mutinous soldiers. East Timor’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unharmed from an ambush of his motorcade the same day, said AP.
Most of the suspects in both attacks have been captured. The president’s guards killed rebel leader Alfredo Reinado.

China poured scorn on the Dalai Lama on Sunday and lauded protesters against Tibetan self-rule as heroes while some Chinese vented ire at their own government for proposing talks with the exiled Buddhist leader.
According to AP, China has blamed what it calls the Dalai Lama’s “clique“ for recent unrest across Tibetan areas, which it says was aimed at upstaging the Beijing Olympic Games.
Many Chinese, proud to host the Games in August, have denounced the unrest and pro-Tibet independence protests that have dogged the international Olympic torch relay.
But after a Western diplomatic chorus urged dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Beijing abruptly announced on Friday that it intended to meet his aides in the next few days.
The undimmed criticism of the Dalai Lama in Chinese official media suggests the government will treat any talks as a chance to amplify opposition to his calls for high-level regional autonomy, which Beijing says amounts to outright independence.