Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to intensify dialogue and exchanged opinions on the key global and regional problems, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"The part of talks in the narrow format has just finished… These are the key parameters of bilateral relations with emphasis on the intention to intensify the dialogue in different directions with the restoration of the old mechanisms," Sputnik cited Peskov as saying.
According to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Putin and Abe have agreed to restore frozen military contacts, as well as contacts in the 2+2 format.
The two met at a mountainside inn at the hot spring resort of Nagato in Abe's home constituency in southwest Japan. They will meet again in Tokyo on Friday.
Putin also told Abe of Russia's concerns about the US presence in Asia, which Russia thinks is disproportionate to the North Korea nuclear and missile threat, Lavrov said.
"We thought that our Japan colleagues started to understand Russian worries in this regard better," he said, adding that Abe and Putin also discussed Syria.
