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No prospects for Japan-Russia peace treaty at present, prime minister says

Fumio Kishida also said that the issue of humanitarian exchanges between Japan and the southern Kuril Islands remains Tokyo's priority

TOKYO, March 18. /TASS/. There are no prospects for a peace treaty with Russia at the moment, Japan will stick to its position on concluding such a treaty and settling the territorial dispute, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.

According to him, due to the situation around Ukraine, "Russia-Japan relations are in such a state that the prospects for talks, first of all on a peace treaty, are not visible." At the same time, Japan "will continue to adhere to the course of concluding a peace treaty and settling the territorial issue."

Kishida also said that the issue of humanitarian exchanges between Japan and the southern Kuril Islands remains Tokyo's priority. According to him, this primarily concerns efforts to resume visits to the graves of relatives of former Japanese residents of these territories.

Moscow and Tokyo have been in negotiations on a peace treaty based on the outcome of World War II since the mid-20th century. The main obstacle to such an accord remains the disagreement over rights to the southern part of the Kuril Islands. After the war, the entire archipelago was incorporated into the Soviet Union, but Japan disputes the ownership of the islands of Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan, as well as several small uninhabited islands. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that Russia’s sovereignty over these islands is based on a firm legal foundation and is indisputable.

After the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Tokyo imposed several packages of sanctions on Moscow. In this regard, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced in March 2022 that Moscow would stop negotiating a peace treaty with Tokyo. It was also decided to cancel visa-free travel privileges for Japanese citizens on the basis of the 1991 agreements on visa-free exchange between the southern Kuril Islands. In addition, the Russian side announced its withdrawal from the dialogue with Japan on the establishment of joint economic activities in the southern Kurils and blocked the extension of Japan’s status as a sectoral dialogue partner of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC).

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