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Moscow regrets Japan ForMin’s pronouncements about South Kurils

These words add no positive to the bilateral relations

MOSCOW, September 8 (Itar-Tass) —— Recent pronouncements by Japan’s new Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba that the South Kuril Islands were occupied and are managed in a legally groundless form in no way contribute to the development of bilateral relations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

“We have taken notice of these pronouncements,” he said and noted that Moscow regrets that such words were ever voiced in the background of positive tendencies in the relations between the two countries. “These words add no positive to the bilateral relations.”