A senior Russian government official has expressed wariness about Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio's upcoming visit to Central Asia.

Kishida is scheduled to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries from Friday for a summit meeting of regional leaders and one-on-one talks. The tour is aimed at bolstering cooperation with the region in economic and other fields. Officials from around 50 Japanese companies are expected to accompany Kishida.

In a written response on the Russian Foreign Ministry website, spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented that "Japan's attempts to penetrate into Central Asia, which is thousands of kilometers away from it" are not motivated by economic interest but are influenced by American policies.

She suggested Japan is trying to expand its interests in the region that Russia has long regarded as part of its sphere of influence.

Zakharova said Japan is seeking "to damage the system of economic ties between the countries of this region and the Russian Federation, which has been formed over decades."

She added that Japan is attempting to "pull" the Central Asian countries to "the Western ideology of 'order based on rules,' which she claimed as having "anti-Russian and anti-Chinese overtones."

She went on to say Tokyo seeks to make recipients of its development aid "dependent on external capital and technology."