Japan’s NTT Communications and Russian TransTeleCom are in the final stages of negotiations for a project to link the two nations by jointly laying fibre-optic cable between Hokkaido, northern Japan, and Sakhalin, Russia’s Far East. The two firms are expected to announce the deal during Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov’s two-day visit to Japan, which will start on February 27.

TransTeleCom, a subsidiary of Russia’s state railroad company, owns communication lines along the tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

By connecting these lines with the proposed Hokkaido-Sakhalin cable, the companies aim to create the shortest link between Japan and Europe.

A NTT Communications spokeswoman said: “Negotiations are still under way. We cannot even say we are at the final stage.”

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