MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Deputy of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Sergei Ivanov submitted a bill to the national parliament on Japan’s territorial claims to Russia, which bans the transfer of the Kuril Islands, according to information posted in the State Duma’s electronic database on Thursday.
"The Kuril Islands belong to the Russian Federation following the results of World War Two and pursuant to the Cairo Declaration of December 1, 1943, the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945 and the peace treaty with Japan signed in San Francisco on September 8, 1951. The legal acts containing the provisions on giving up the territory of the Kuril Islands are not subject to their ratification, publishing, enforcement and application," the bill says.
The bill’s author indicates in the accompanying documents that the initiative was submitted to the Russian parliament after the Japanese legislature adopted amendments to the law on special measures to speed up the solution of the problem of the northern territories, which stipulates that the four islands belong to Japan and sets the task of taking utmost efforts to return them.
"In the Instrument of Surrender of September 2, 1945, Japan unconditionally recognized the Potsdam Declaration and the Cairo Declaration mentioned in it. In compliance with article 2 of the San Francisco Treaty of Peace of 1951, Japan gives up all the rights, legal grounds and claims to the Kuril Islands and the part of the Sakhalin Island and the adjacent islands, the sovereignty over which Japan acquired under the Portsmouth Treaty of September 5, 1905. Pursuant to the above-mentioned, the legal acts in the Russian Federation on repudiating the Kuril Islands are not subject to publishing and have no legal force," the LDPR deputy says.
Since the mid-20th century, Russia and Japan have been holding consultations in order to clinch a peace treaty as a follow-up to World War II. The Kuril Islands issue remains the sticking point since after WWII the islands were handed over to the Soviet Union while Japan has laid claims to the four southern islands. In 1956, the two countries signed a common declaration on ending the state of war and restoring diplomatic and all other relations, however, a peace treaty has still not been reached. Moscow has stated many times that Russia’s sovereignty over the islands could not be questioned.