Report: Obama urges Japanese premier not to visit Russia in May

Tokyo (dpa) - US President Barack Obama urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to refrain from visiting Russia in May for talks with President Vladimir Putin, Japanese media reported Wednesday.Obama wanted Abe to cancel his scheduled trip to Russia, as the United States seeks to isolate Moscow over its actions in Ukraine and Syria, Kyodo News agency reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.Abe refused to comply with the US president‘s request in their telephone talk on February 9, and he is likely to travel to Sochi, Russia, in early May to meet Putin.The Japanese Foreign Ministry has not revealed what Abe and Obama discussed regarding Abe‘s scheduled trip to Russia.The two leaders primarily discussed cooperation between the two countries in responding to the launch of a rocket by North Korea in early February.The Japanese premier is keen to settle a decades-old territorial dispute over Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido that has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty after World War II, Kyodo said.Abe "will push through with his trip to Russia in May whatever the United States says," one source was quoted by Kyodo as saying.The premier told Obama that resolving the territorial dispute will contribute to stability in the East Asian region, the report said.