Japan, Russia agree to plan Abe talks with Putin in Russia
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan and Russia agreed Friday to plan dates for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said, as Tokyo seeks to take the opportunity to advance a long-standing bilateral territorial dispute.
"We will compile a solution acceptable to both sides. We held a positive debate that will give a boost to the negotiations going forward," Kishida told reporters following his talks with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Tokyo.
Abe is expected to visit the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi in early May for talks with Putin, Japanese government sources have said.
The leaders' talks is seen by Japan as a key to advance the decades-old territorial dispute over four Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido, which has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty following World War II.
The islands -- Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan as well as the Habomai islet group -- were seized by the Soviet Union following Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. They are called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.
The ministers also agreed to hold senior officials' meeting on the territorial dispute at an early date after Abe's visit to Russia, Kishida told reporters.
Japan also hopes that Abe's meeting with Putin in Sochi will pave the way for a return trip by the Russian president to Japan. Such a visit had initially been eyed in 2014 but was postponed after Russia annexed the Crimean region of southern Ukraine in March 2014, deteriorating its relations with Western countries and Japan.
Prior to the Ukrainian crisis, Putin and Abe had agreed in April 2013 to seek "a solution acceptable to both sides" over the islands, and reaffirmed this intention in February 2014, just before Russia annexed Crimea.
In their meeting Monday, Kishida and Lavrov failed to reach a compromise over the territorial issue, due apparently to their differing views on the paths to resolve the matter.
Russia maintains the view that negotiations over the peace treaty and the territorial dispute are "not directly connected," in contrast with Tokyo's position that resolving the islands' sovereignty is a prerequisite for concluding the treaty.
In the press conference, Lavrov said Russia is ready to continue dialogue but at the same time reasserted Russia's sovereignty over the four islands since the end of World War II in 1945.
His comments come in line with the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement released Thursday, which said, "It is firmly believed in Russia that progress in this sphere depends on Japan recognizing the post-war historical realities," referring to Russia's administration of the four islands.
Tokyo, meanwhile, says the islands have been illegally occupied by Russia since the Soviet Union seized them in 1945.
The ministers' meeting came as the two nations are stepping up efforts to improve bilateral ties that worsened due to Russia's annexation of Crimea and its intervention in a conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Kishida and Lavrov met in Moscow last September and agreed to resume high-level negotiations over the long-standing territorial dispute, which had been dormant since January 2014. The talks were restarted in Moscow in October 2015.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Eco...-agree-to-plan-Abe-talks-with-Putin-in-Russia
@TaiShang Wish @Aepsilons was there so that we can discuss about how Japan-Russia relations will evolve in the near future.
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan and Russia agreed Friday to plan dates for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said, as Tokyo seeks to take the opportunity to advance a long-standing bilateral territorial dispute.
"We will compile a solution acceptable to both sides. We held a positive debate that will give a boost to the negotiations going forward," Kishida told reporters following his talks with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Tokyo.
Abe is expected to visit the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi in early May for talks with Putin, Japanese government sources have said.
The leaders' talks is seen by Japan as a key to advance the decades-old territorial dispute over four Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido, which has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty following World War II.
The islands -- Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan as well as the Habomai islet group -- were seized by the Soviet Union following Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. They are called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.
The ministers also agreed to hold senior officials' meeting on the territorial dispute at an early date after Abe's visit to Russia, Kishida told reporters.
Japan also hopes that Abe's meeting with Putin in Sochi will pave the way for a return trip by the Russian president to Japan. Such a visit had initially been eyed in 2014 but was postponed after Russia annexed the Crimean region of southern Ukraine in March 2014, deteriorating its relations with Western countries and Japan.
Prior to the Ukrainian crisis, Putin and Abe had agreed in April 2013 to seek "a solution acceptable to both sides" over the islands, and reaffirmed this intention in February 2014, just before Russia annexed Crimea.
In their meeting Monday, Kishida and Lavrov failed to reach a compromise over the territorial issue, due apparently to their differing views on the paths to resolve the matter.
Russia maintains the view that negotiations over the peace treaty and the territorial dispute are "not directly connected," in contrast with Tokyo's position that resolving the islands' sovereignty is a prerequisite for concluding the treaty.
In the press conference, Lavrov said Russia is ready to continue dialogue but at the same time reasserted Russia's sovereignty over the four islands since the end of World War II in 1945.
His comments come in line with the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement released Thursday, which said, "It is firmly believed in Russia that progress in this sphere depends on Japan recognizing the post-war historical realities," referring to Russia's administration of the four islands.
Tokyo, meanwhile, says the islands have been illegally occupied by Russia since the Soviet Union seized them in 1945.
The ministers' meeting came as the two nations are stepping up efforts to improve bilateral ties that worsened due to Russia's annexation of Crimea and its intervention in a conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Kishida and Lavrov met in Moscow last September and agreed to resume high-level negotiations over the long-standing territorial dispute, which had been dormant since January 2014. The talks were restarted in Moscow in October 2015.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Eco...-agree-to-plan-Abe-talks-with-Putin-in-Russia
@TaiShang Wish @Aepsilons was there so that we can discuss about how Japan-Russia relations will evolve in the near future.
