Putin: Russia received no firm response from Tokyo on missiles

MOSCOW, June 4 (MENA) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had not received a firm response from Tokyo about the threat from missile systems in Japan, but was ready to build relations, Sputnik reported.

"We were very interested in how we would resolve these issues, I mean the plans of your allies to deploy modern strike missile systems in Japan. We have always had the question of whether these missile systems would end up at such a distance at which they will threaten the Russian Federation," he said at a meeting with heads of foreign news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

"We have not received an unambiguous, firm, clear answer," he said.

"But I believe that in any case, we must build good-neighborly relations with Japan, in which both the people of Japan and the people of Russia are interested," Putin added.

He stressed that Russia and Japan were natural partners in many areas.