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Russia-Japan dispute over Kuril Islands

Russia-Japan peace treaty consultations to take place in Tokyo on June 22

The talks will be held between Chikahito Harada, the Japanese government representative and ambassador in charge of Japan-Russia relations, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov

© ITAR-TASS/Yuri Smityuk

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. Another round of Russia-Japan consultations on a peace treaty will take place in Tokyo on June 22, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday.

"In line with an agreement reached during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sochi on May 6, 2016, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and the Japanese government’s envoy for relations with Russia Tikahito Harada will hold another round of Russian-Japanese talks on the peace treaty problem in Tokyo on June 22," the ministry said.

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Earlier Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told a news conference that he hoped for forward-looking and fruitful discussion.

The talks will be held between Chikahito Harada, the Japanese government representative and ambassador in charge of Japan-Russia relations, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov.

The agreement to hold these consultations was reached at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi in May.

A meeting between senior officials on the issue of peace treaty negotiations was last held in October in Moscow. Japan hopes to advance the territorial talks ahead of a proposed Abe-Putin meeting in Vladivostok in September.

Russia and Japan have been in talks to fully mend bilateral relations and sign a peace treaty for decades. The main stumbling block to this is the issue of the ownership of the southern Kuril Islands. After the end of World War II all Kuril Islands were incorporated into the Soviet Union. However, the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan islands and the Habomai Islands is challenged by Japan. In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a joint declaration on ceasing the state of war, however no peace treaty has been signed until now.

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