The protest over the disputed islands could set back Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to court resource-rich Russia and keep the door open to dialogue, despite the Ukraine crisis.
Tokyo and Moscow have been involved in a decades-old dispute over the islands north of Hokkaido, which are known in Russia as the Kuriles, and referred to as the Northern Territories in Japan.
Russia seized them in the waning days of World War Two and the dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.
After Medvedev visited Iturup island on Saturday, senior Japanese foreign ministry official Hajime Hayashi lodged the protest with the Russian ambassador to Japan, Evgeny Afanasiev, over the telephone, the Japanese ministry said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will delay a visit to Russia that had been arranged for the end of August, the Nikkei business daily said, but did not elaborate.
Medvedev's visit is likely to have an adverse impact on Russia's relations with Japan, which had been looking to arrange a visit this year by Russian President Vladimir Putin for summit talks with Abe, Kyodo news agency said.
Russia ordered a quicker build up of military facilities in the disputed islands in June, following comments by Putin in April that he was ready to discuss the issue, while blaming Japan for a lack of dialogue.
Energy interests drive the effort for closer ties between Japan and Russia.
Russia plans to at least double oil and gas flows to Asia in the next 20 years and Japan has been forced to resort to huge fuel imports to replace lost nuclear energy, after its reactors were shut down because of the 2011 Fukushima disaster caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami.
[seadavid.blogspot.gr]
22/8/15
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Russian PM arrives on disputed Kuril Islands
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev landed on Saturday in the Kuril islands, prompting a swift rebuke from Tokyo, which claims sovereignty over the northwest Pacific archipelago in a long-running dispute...
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Tokyo is postponing the visit of Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to Russia, Japan’s Kyodo News Agency said on Saturday...
ReplyDeleteKishida was expected to pay a visit to Russia in late August or early September.
The visit was cancelled amid Saturday’s trip of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to one of the Kuril Islands claimed by Japan.
"We consider that this (Medvedev’s visit) is simply unacceptable," the agency quoted earlier a Japanese diplomat as saying. He stressed that this visit is more significant than the trips of other ministers.
"This move hurts the feelings of Japanese citizens who seek the return of these territories," the diplomat said.
The report on Saturday morning said the Japanese Foreign Ministry plans to voice its protest to the Russian side via diplomatic channels.
Russia’s embassy in Tokyo told TASS that there was a phone conversation on Saturday with the director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s European Affairs Bureau, Hajime Hayashi. The embassy gave no further details on the conversation.
Medvedev arrived on Saturday in the Kuril Islands as part of his working trip to the country’s Far East.
http://tass.ru/en/russia/815880