MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. A meaningful dialogue with Japan on a peace treaty is hardly possible now because Tokyo has sided with those countries that are unfriendly to Russia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.
"Japan has quite actively joined the camp of those countries that became unfriendly to us. And with its actions in terms of bilateral relations Japan is not displaying anything constructive. Essentially, any meaningful dialogue is currently absent and certainly under these conditions it is hardly possible to talk about this possibility de facto," the Kremlin official said replying to a question on Moscow’s readiness to interact with Tokyo on the peace treaty.
Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the country’s government, despite the difficult state of affairs between Tokyo and Moscow due to the situation around Ukraine, maintains its policy directed at resolving the territorial issue and concluding the peace treaty.
For decades, Moscow and Tokyo have been holding consultations in order to clinch a peace treaty as a follow-up to World War II. The southern Kuril Islands issue remains the key sticking point. In 1945, the whole archipelago was handed over to the Soviet Union. Tokyo laid claims to Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of uninhabited islands. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stated that Moscow’s sovereignty over the islands is enshrined in international law and cannot be called into question.
In March 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Moscow was terminating peace treaty talks with Tokyo due to the unilateral restrictions that Japan had imposed on Russia over the situation in Ukraine. Additionally, Russia withdrew from dialogue with Japan on joint economic activities on the southern Kuril Islands and blocked the extension of Japan’s status as a sectoral dialogue partner of the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation.