NAGATO, December 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have not discussed sovereignty over the South Kuril Islands, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
"It was not," he said, when asked if the subject had been brought up.
Likewise, Peskov said a temporal framework for discussing the peace treaty issue was not raised at the talks.
Earlier, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that at the bilateral meeting the two leaders worked personally on the parameters of a document regarding the start of consultations on joint Russian-Japanese economic activity on the four disputed southern Kuril islands.
"Experts had spent several weeks working on the text only to fail to produce a final version that would suit both sides. The two leaders then had to get down to work to spend some 40 minutes to agree on a final version of the text, which will be published tomorrow," Ushakov said.
"The presidents will instruct the experts of both countries to enter into detailed consultations on coordinating the conditions, forms and areas of joint economic activity in the South Kurils," Ushakov explained, adding that the talks would concern all four disputed islands.
He mentioned such activities as fishing, mariculture, tourism, medicine, ecology and a number of others.
Asked if the economic activity would be conducted on the basis of Russian legislation, Ushakov said: "Of course, this is a territory of Russia."