Japan and Russia are developing 20 joint projects in several areas, including energy and medicine, which will see agreements on further implementation made during the upcoming visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Moscow in end-April, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper wrote Saturday.
The issue is about a final agreement on sale of 10-20% of shares of the Russian pharmaceutical company R-Pharm to Japan’s Mitsui, the newspaper said, adding that the latter plans not to only to supply Japanese drugs to the Russian Federation, but also to expand cooperation in the production field.
As reported earlier Mitsui & Co agreed to buy 10% in R-Pharm with potential extension of the share to 20%.
Mitsui plans to spend 15-20 mln yen ($130-174 mln) on acquisition of a 10% stake in R-Pharm, Japan’s top business daily Nikkei reported earlier.
Another point on the agenda of Abe’s visit is to confirm the expected participation of Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) in the joint development of oil and gas fields in Russia’s Irkutsk.
Japan’s Prime Minister put forward an eight-point cooperation plan to develop the relations with Russia during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on May 6, 2016. The plan includes efforts to foster relations between Japan and Russia in the energy sector, small and medium-sized businesses, the promotion of industrialization of the Far East, expansion of the export base, as well as the proposal to strengthen cooperation in the cutting-edge technologies, including nuclear energy, and the sphere of humanitarian exchanges. Later 30 priority projects for cooperation were defined.
Following the Russian President’s visit to Japan on December 15-16, 2016 and his meetings with Japanese PM a joint statement was adopted, which said that the beginning of consultations on joint economic activities on the South Kuril Islands would be an important step towards signing a peace treaty by the two neighbors.
