Russia and Japan agreed to expand their Defence Ties

Russia and Japan on 2 November 2013 held their first joint Defence and Foreign Ministers meeting and agreed to expand their defense and security cooperation.

The Foreign Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and their counterpart from Russia, Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu, who met in Tokoyo agreed to hold joint military and antipiracy exercises and then established a defence consultation framework. The defence tie-up between the two countries is signed with an aim to establish the stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific region.

With this agreement, Russia became the third country in the world to establish the two-plus-two mechanism of bilateral interaction at the ministerial level with Japan after US and Australia. On the other side, Japan became the first Asian country to have the arrangement with Russia.

The two countries have also agreed to conduct, the first ever anti-terrorism and anti-piracy exercises between the Maritime Self Defence Force of Japan and the Navy of Russia.  

Japan and Russia have also agreed to discuss the territorial dispute, because of which Russia and Japan has been able to sign the peace treaty after the second world war 2. The two nations had disputes over the four Kuril Islands that are claimed by Japan.