Japan’s Abe says wants to discuss peace treaty with Putin

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday he wants to discuss a peace treaty with Russia and the North Korean issue with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Putin said last week that Abe told him Tokyo could not immediately sign a peace treaty with Moscow without first resolving their territorial dispute.

Russia and Japan have been in dispute for seven decades over island territories captured by Soviet troops in the last days of the World War Two. As a result, they have still not formally ended hostilities.