Greetings of Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov to Participants of the Sixth Russian-Japanese Forum ‘Prospects for Russian-Japanese Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region in the Conditions of Globalization’

I cordially greet the participants of the Sixth Forum ‘Prospects for Russian-Japanese Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region in the Conditions of Globalization,', organized by the Russian Institute of Contemporary Development and the Japan Center for International Exchange with the support of the Government of the Irkutsk Region.

The Russian-Japanese Forum, the decision on the establishment of which was adopted in 2000 by the top leaders of the Russian Federation and Japan to deepen mutual understanding and trust between our countries, has over the past years firmly established itself as an important component of bilateral dialogue. Bringing together authoritative representatives of the scientific, political, business, official and public circles of Russia and Japan at the table of open and constructive discussions, the Forum makes a significant contribution to building constructive partnership relations between our states.

Symbolically, the meeting of the Forum is being held in Irkutsk, a city with which many bright pages in the history of relations between Russia and Japan are associated. Here in the 18th century, the first Japanese language school in our country was set up and hence the expeditions were prepared to study Japan and to establish contacts with it. Today the city and the Irkutsk region continue to be enthusiastic and keen participants in the Russian-Japanese exchange and maintain links with their partners in the regions of Japan.

We hope that this forum will be rich in fresh ideas and nontrivial approaches to ways of further enhancing Japanese-Russian relations and of imparting to them a new quality in all areas. It is these challenges that are relevant today in the light of the recent meeting in New York between President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, which focused on the need for a comprehensive revitalization of bilateral relations and on the importance of efforts to tap the huge potential of Russian-Japanese cooperation for this purpose.

I would like to wish the Forum participants successful and productive work.

Moscow, October 3, 2009

S. LAVROV