The ministry said Kishida is to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov during the visit. It added that Kishida plans to touch upon the issue of "solution to the problem of the Northern Territories" (the way Japan calls Russia’s Southern Kuril Islands).
The problem of the southern Kuril Islands is the key obstacle to a complete normalization of the Russian-Japanese ties and the signing of a peace treaty. After the Second World War, all Kuril Islands were made part of the Soviet Union. But Japan does not agree that the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai island group belong to Russia. Tokyo calls the islands "Northern Territories".
[tass.ru]
19/9/15
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Kishida in Moscow for talks on territorial dispute...
ReplyDeleteForeign Minister Fumio Kishida was set to hold high-level talks Monday in Moscow in hopes of making progress on the long-standing bilateral territorial dispute and restart negotiations for concluding a World War II peace treaty.
Officials in the Abe administration said Kishida also hoped to lay the groundwork during his talks with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for a visit to Japan by President Vladimir Putin this year.
Kishida is on a four-day trip to Russia that started Sunday.
Japan has been angered by repeated visits by Russian Cabinet members to some of the Russian-held islands claimed by Japan. The decades-old dispute has prevented the two nations from signing a peace treaty over World War II.
“I foresee that talks regarding the Northern Territories will be tough, but I would like to find a way to break the stalemate over the peace pact negotiations,” Kishida told reporters ahead of his departure Sunday.
The four disputed islands — seized by the Soviet Union following Japan’s surrender in August 1945 — are called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.............Kyodo
21/9/15