TOKYO, August 22. /TASS/. Tokyo is postponing the visit of Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to Russia, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency said on Saturday.
Kishida was expected to pay a visit to Russia in late August or early September.
The visit was cancelled amid Saturday’s trip of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to one of the Kuril Islands claimed by Japan.
"We consider that this (Medvedev’s visit) is simply unacceptable," the agency quoted earlier a Japanese diplomat as saying. He stressed that this visit is more significant than the trips of other ministers.
"This move hurts the feelings of Japanese citizens who seek the return of these territories," the diplomat said.
The report on Saturday morning said the Japanese Foreign Ministry plans to voice its protest to the Russian side via diplomatic channels.
Russia’s embassy in Tokyo told TASS that there was a phone conversation on Saturday with the director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s European Affairs Bureau, Hajime Hayashi. The embassy gave no further details on the conversation.
Medvedev arrived on Saturday in the Kuril Islands as part of his working trip to the country’s Far East.
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