Abe, Putin to huddle at hot spring over Japan-Russia islands row

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at a hot spring resort on Thursday seeking progress on a territorial row that has prevented their countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending World War Two.


The two sides are likely to clinch some agreements on economic cooperation in areas from medical technology to energy. But both have sought to dampen expectations of a breakthrough in the feud over the windswept islands in the western Pacific seized by Soviet forces at the end of the war, forcing some 17,000 Japanese residents to flee.

The two leaders will meet on Thursday at a mountainside inn at the hot spring resort of Nagato in Abe's home constituency in southwest Japan, and again in Tokyo on Friday.
 [jpost.com/Reuters]
15/12/16