In the midst of the greatly changing strategic environment of the Asia-Pacific region, pursuing stronger cooperation with Russia in various fields and strengthening overall Japan-Russia relations serve Japan’s national interest. With this understanding, talks at various levels took place in 2012, including two summit meetings and four foreign ministers’ meetings which included reciprocal visits by foreign ministers.
　Especially in the field of security, Mr. Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, visited Japan in October. Upon his visit, Mr. Patrushev and Minister for Foreign Affairs Gemba signed a memorandum between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Security Council of the Russian Federation through which both sides confirmed their intent to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in security-related matters. In economic terms, First Deputy Prime Minister Shuvalov visited Japan in November and co-chaired the Japan-Russia Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Issues together with Minister Gemba. It was concurred that the two countries will advance cooperation across various fields, such as cooperation in the Far East/Siberia regions, as well as in the wide fields of energy, energy saving, medical care, modernization and innovation, transportation, and agriculture. Japan also interacted with Russia in various other ways, including the visit of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to Japan.
　There still remains a wide gap between Japan and Russia on their positions concerning the issue of the Northern Territories, which is the main pending issue between the two countries. However, Japan and Russia continued talks at various levels, such as the summit level, foreign minister level and vice-minister level. The Japanese Government is determined to vigorously negotiate with Russia so as to resolve the Northern Territory issues and conclude a peace treaty.
　Countries in Central Asia and Caucasus,(*11) which have abundant natural resources such as oil and natural gas, are situated in a geopolitically strategic location that bridges Asia, Europe, Russia and the Middle East. The importance of this region is on the rise also in the context of efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and addressing crucial issues in the international community such as preventing the spread of terrorism, illicit drugs, and illegal armaments.
　Against the backdrop of the fact that Year 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between these countries and Japan, Japan advanced initiatives to further strengthen the relationship with those countries through frequent visits of key officials and foreign ministers’ meetings within the framework of the “Central Asia plus Japan” Dialogue.

11 Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Caucasus countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.