Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov has agreed to restart high-level negotiations in October on a World War II peace treaty that has long eluded the two countries because of a decades-old territorial dispute, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.

Kishida and Lavrov, meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry, agreed to restart deputy foreign ministerial-level talks in Moscow on Oct. 8. High-level talks focusing on the row over four Russian-held isles off Hokkaido and the peace treaty issue have been suspended since January last year.

During his talks with Lavrov, Kishida meanwhile took the opportunity to renew Japanese protests over repeated trip by Russian Cabinet members to some of the disputed islands.

Source: MENA