Putin Hopes for Nuclear Deal in Japan
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hopes to sign a long-delayed deal to supply additional nuclear fuel to Japan and to cooperate on making related equipment and building reactors during talks in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Officials are winding up preparations for an agreement between the Russian and Japanese governments on nuclear power collaboration that has been in the works since 2007, Putin said in an interview with Japanese news media ahead of his three-day visit to Japan, which kicked off Monday.
"We see how lucky Japan is in developing high technology," Putin said in the interview posted on the Cabinet's web site Sunday. "And, of course, coupling the possibilities of Russia and Japan in these areas, I think, would be very important."
He said he thought that the countries would sign the nuclear agreement during his visit to Tokyo.
Japan's representative to Moscow, Masaharu Kono, was less hopeful, saying Friday that the countries had yet to reach a final agreement on the matter, Interfax reported.
The deal would open the way for Russia to almost double its nuclear fuel exports to Japan, conduct joint research and create partnerships to make equipment in Russia and pursue reactor-building contracts worldwide. Russia now supplies 15 percent of Japan's market but is aiming to increase its share to 25 percent in the next few years, Putin said.
Talks took longer than expected to complete, missing deadlines at the end of 2007 and in mid-2008 over Japanese concerns that its technology might be leaked to the Russian defense industry.
Putin reiterated that Russia was ready to continue talks on a sore point in bilateral relations -- the four disputed Kuril Islands controlled by Russia -- provided that the two countries step up their economic collaboration.
"We need to develop relations in all dimensions in order to resolve problems of such magnitude and convolution," Putin said in the interview.
As well as meeting Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Putin will address a forum of Russian and Japanese regional governors where Mayor Yury Luzhkov will lead the Russian delegation. Putin will also attend a Russian-Japanese business forum and have a working breakfast with both countries' businessmen, including -- on the Russian side -- Gazprom chief Alexei Miller, Rosneft chief Sergei Bogdanchikov, Basic Element owner Oleg Deripaska, Vneshekonombank chief Vladimir Dmitriyev and VTB chief Andrei Kostin.
State-owned RusHydro, the world's second-largest producer of hydroelectricity, is expected to sign a note of arrangement with Mitsui about building the Nizhnebureiskaya Power Station in the Far East and a minute of compact with J-Power to build a wind power station on the Russky Island in Vladivostok as part of preparations for a Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the city in 2012.
Putin has reserved time to meet the leaders of Japan's Democratic Party, the primary antipathy to Aso's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. He has also scheduled meetings with his previous negotiating partners from Japan, former Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Yoshiro Mori.
While in Tokyo, Putin may hold a supervision meeting on the Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 project, where Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi cumulatively own 22.5 percent. Should it take place, it would mark an unusual foreign meeting of the government's administrative council for the project.
Sakhalin Governor Alexander Khoroshavin mentioned the chance of the meeting in Japan last month, saying officials -- and possibly Putin -- could decide whether to expand the Sakhalin-2 plant to make liquefied natural gas. The plant began supplies of the gas, chilled to a liquid condition, by tanker in March and has targeted Japan as its biggest market. Its current capacity is 9.6 million tons of LNG per year.
From Tokyo, Putin will fly to Mongolia on Wednesday to oversee the signing of a joint venture to mine natural resources by state-run Russian Railways and Mongolia's railway company MTZ. He will discuss other investment projects in Mongolia's mining sector that will involve Deripaska's Basic Element and Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group.
Officials are winding up preparations for an agreement between the Russian and Japanese governments on nuclear power collaboration that has been in the works since 2007, Putin said in an interview with Japanese news media ahead of his three-day visit to Japan, which kicked off Monday.
"We see how lucky Japan is in developing high technology," Putin said in the interview posted on the Cabinet's web site Sunday. "And, of course, coupling the possibilities of Russia and Japan in these areas, I think, would be very important."
He said he thought that the countries would sign the nuclear agreement during his visit to Tokyo.
Japan's representative to Moscow, Masaharu Kono, was less hopeful, saying Friday that the countries had yet to reach a final agreement on the matter, Interfax reported.
The deal would open the way for Russia to almost double its nuclear fuel exports to Japan, conduct joint research and create partnerships to make equipment in Russia and pursue reactor-building contracts worldwide. Russia now supplies 15 percent of Japan's market but is aiming to increase its share to 25 percent in the next few years, Putin said.
Talks took longer than expected to complete, missing deadlines at the end of 2007 and in mid-2008 over Japanese concerns that its technology might be leaked to the Russian defense industry.
Putin reiterated that Russia was ready to continue talks on a sore point in bilateral relations -- the four disputed Kuril Islands controlled by Russia -- provided that the two countries step up their economic collaboration.
"We need to develop relations in all dimensions in order to resolve problems of such magnitude and convolution," Putin said in the interview.
As well as meeting Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Putin will address a forum of Russian and Japanese regional governors where Mayor Yury Luzhkov will lead the Russian delegation. Putin will also attend a Russian-Japanese business forum and have a working breakfast with both countries' businessmen, including -- on the Russian side -- Gazprom chief Alexei Miller, Rosneft chief Sergei Bogdanchikov, Basic Element owner Oleg Deripaska, Vneshekonombank chief Vladimir Dmitriyev and VTB chief Andrei Kostin.
State-owned RusHydro, the world's second-largest producer of hydroelectricity, is expected to sign a note of arrangement with Mitsui about building the Nizhnebureiskaya Power Station in the Far East and a minute of compact with J-Power to build a wind power station on the Russky Island in Vladivostok as part of preparations for a Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the city in 2012.
Putin has reserved time to meet the leaders of Japan's Democratic Party, the primary antipathy to Aso's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. He has also scheduled meetings with his previous negotiating partners from Japan, former Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Yoshiro Mori.
While in Tokyo, Putin may hold a supervision meeting on the Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 project, where Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi cumulatively own 22.5 percent. Should it take place, it would mark an unusual foreign meeting of the government's administrative council for the project.
Sakhalin Governor Alexander Khoroshavin mentioned the chance of the meeting in Japan last month, saying officials -- and possibly Putin -- could decide whether to expand the Sakhalin-2 plant to make liquefied natural gas. The plant began supplies of the gas, chilled to a liquid condition, by tanker in March and has targeted Japan as its biggest market. Its current capacity is 9.6 million tons of LNG per year.
From Tokyo, Putin will fly to Mongolia on Wednesday to oversee the signing of a joint venture to mine natural resources by state-run Russian Railways and Mongolia's railway company MTZ. He will discuss other investment projects in Mongolia's mining sector that will involve Deripaska's Basic Element and Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group.
