Japan and Russia agreed Saturday to hold vice-ministerial talks in mid-March in Moscow to discuss the substance of a half century-long territorial dispute over four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido that Japan claims.
But newly appointed Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and her visiting Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, apparently talked past each other over how to conduct the planned bilateral negotiations.
The meeting marked the diplomatic debut for Kawaguchi, who took the foreign minister's post Friday following a week of political confusion that led to the dismissal of her predecessor, Makiko Tanaka.