TOKYO, November 16. /TASS/. The Japanese government started preparations for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Russia next January to discuss the peace treaty issue, the Kyodo news agency said on Friday, citing sources in the premier’s office.
According to the agency, the visit is scheduled to take place in the second half of the month. The talks are expected to focus on signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan.
After the meeting between Putin and Abe, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the two leaders had agreed on intensifying Russian-Japanese talks on the peace treaty based on the 1956 Declaration. In his turn, Abe told reporters after meeting with Putin that he would visit Russia in early 2019 and also voiced confidence that the two leaders would be able to solve the territorial dispute and ink the peace deal.
During the meeting in Singapore, Putin recalled that the 1956 Declaration stipulates that after signing the peace treaty the Soviet Union would be ready to return two islands to Japan. "It neither says on what ground to return them nor under what sovereignty these islands will remain nor on what basis this may be done. But it defined the Soviet Union’s readiness," he noted.
Commenting on the statement, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday that his country would insist on establishing its sovereignty over the two islands.
"In case the islands of Shikotan and Habomai are handed over to Japan, we will naturally confirm our sovereignty over them," Suga said.
Meanwhile, the Asahi newspaper said on Friday, citing government sources, that Abe assured Putin that if those territories are handed over to Japan, no US military bases will be created there.
The Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration on ending the war between the two countries and restoring diplomatic and consular relations was signed in Moscow on October 1956. Article 9 of the document says that the Soviet government agreed to hand over to Japan Shikotan Island and some small uninhabited islands of the Lesser Kuril Chain (which Japan calls Habomai) provided that their actual transfer to Japan’s control would be carried out after the conclusion of a peace treaty. The two states ratified the Declaration on December 8, 1956.
However, the Soviet Union annulled its commitments to hand over the two islands in response to the 1960 signing of the US-Japan security treaty. According to the 1960 memorandum of the Soviet government, the transfer of the islands to Japan will be possible only after all foreign troops are withdrawn from its territory.
No peace treaty between Russia and Japan has been signed so far.