MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Moscow has not received any official proposals from Tokyo on resuming the peace treaty dialogue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said.

"But aside from the recent statement by the [Japanese] prime minister, we have received no official written proposals on the resumption of talks on the peace treaty," he said when asked by TASS to comment on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s statement regarding his intention to sign a peace treaty with Russia.

The senior Russian diplomat recalled that Moscow’s position is that peace treaty talks with Japan cannot be resumed until Tokyo changes its policy.

Ishiba stated earlier that his government remains committed to settling the territorial issue and signing a peace treaty with Russia, despite the current strains in relations between the two countries. However, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the peace treaty dialogue with Japan can be resumed only after Tokyo abandons its hostile policy toward Moscow.

Russia and Japan have been negotiating a peace treaty after World War II since the mid-20th century. The main stumbling block is the issue of the ownership of the South Kuril Islands. After the end of World War II, all Kuril Islands were incorporated into the Soviet Union. However, Japan challenged the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan islands and a number of uninhabited islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge called the Habomai Islands in Japan.

In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a joint declaration on ceasing the state of war. The two countries resumed diplomatic and other relations, however no peace treaty has been signed until now.

The Russian foreign ministry has repeatedly said that Russia’s sovereignty over these islands, which is committed to paper in international documents, cannot be called in question.

The Russian foreign ministry said in March 2022 that Moscow was stopping peace treaty talks with Tokyo after it imposed unilateral sanctions on Russia over the situation in Ukraine.