Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to visit Russia on May 26 for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a visiting Russian deputy prime minister said in a meeting with a Japanese minister on Saturday.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko agreed in their meeting in Osaka, western Japan, to accelerate coordination so the two countries can further promote economic cooperation through the envisioned meeting between Abe and Putin.

Japan and Russia agreed in 2016 that Tokyo will provide Moscow with economic assistance in eight fields, including medical care, energy development, industry promotion in the Russian Far East and personnel exchanges.

"I hope as many projects will be put into form from being on paper so that Russian people can feel their benefits," Seko said at the talks with Golodets, which were joined by Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin.

They confirmed the countries will strengthen human exchanges between Japanese and Russian universities and cooperate in information technology to enhance productivity.

(Hiroshige Seko (L) and Olga Golodets)

Oreshkin, noting Putin's re-election as president on March 18, said Russia will continue to support the eight-point economic cooperation Abe originally proposed to Putin at their meeting in Russia in May 2016. The two leaders agreed on the cooperation in December that year in a meeting in Japan.

Abe made the proposal to create a favorable environment to make progress on the decades-old territorial dispute over Moscow-held, Tokyo-claimed islands off Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido.

Abe is expected to attend an economic forum in St. Petersburg in late May.