From November 22 - 30, 1998, President Jiang Zemin paid state visits to?Russia and Japan. During the visit to Russia, Jiang and Russian President Boris Yeltsin held the first informal?summit and issued a joint press communiqué about?the China-Russia relationship in the turn of the century and another about?the China-Russia border problem. During the visit to Japan, Jiang met with Japan Emperor Akihito and held a talk with Premier Keizo Obuchi. This was the first time in history that China's head of state visited Japan.