According to him, “There is clarity with regard to the route of the possible pipeline.” “Transneft Company has prepared a feasibility study of the Taishet-Skovorodino-Nakhodka oil pipeline construction project. And this variant is the main one at this time.” Alexeyev said the expert assessment of the variant was complete and so was the required inter-departmental screening of the project. “It can now be submitted to the government for endorsement.” Regardless of the eventual decision-making process, “it is important that it will be our, Russian project the key aim of which is to expedite the development of East Siberia and the Russian Far East,” Alexeyev said. “With this in mind, we will be happy to cooperate with partners in Japan, China and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region in its implementation,” Alexeyev noted. As for relations between Moscow and Tokyo “they cannot be reduced to the territorial issue alone as some people would like them to be,” “We have a set of large-scale and variegated ties that are developing,” said the senior Russian diplomat. “Their advancement has been particularly in evidence lately.” Russia and Japan “are carrying on intensive political dialogue at all levels,” Alexeyev said. “Constantly expanding is the range of international issues with regard to which our positions either coincide or are close to one another.” “We interact in a number of fields, such as the struggle against terrorism, UN reform, cooperation in the G8 framework, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, global ecological issues, and Asia-Pacific regional issues,” said he. The Russian diplomat also noted the “fairly good development of economic cooperation of the two countries: their bilateral trade turnover this year is expected to reach a record-high level of nearly eight billion dollars.” “Cultural ties are also developing intensively along with people-to-people contacts,” the Russian diplomat noted. PIN//ITAR_TASS