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Russia-Japan dispute over Kuril Islands

Japan protests Russia’s exercise near Kuril Islands

"We protested because the strengthening of Russia’s military presence in the northern territories contradicts our country's position," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said

TOKYO, April 17. /TASS/. The Japanese government has expressed a protest to Russia over its plans to hold missile exercises in the area of the southern Kuril Islands from April 18 to 22, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.

"According to a notification sent by the Russian authorities to our Coast Guard, a missile-firing exercise is to be held in the area of Iturup Island from April 18 to 22," he said, adding that this territory included an area that Japan considered as its territorial waters.

"We protested because the strengthening of Russia’s military presence in the northern territories (Japan’s reference to the southern part of the Kuril Islands - TASS) contradicts our country's position," Matsuno added.

Russia has repeatedly called inappropriate Tokyo’s attempts to protest in connection with military exercises in the Kuril Islands. The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the southern Kuril Islands were an integral part of Russian territory and Russia’s sovereignty over them was beyond doubt.

Moscow and Tokyo have been in talks since the middle of last century with the aim of working out a peace agreement after World War II. The disagreement over the rights to the southern part of the Kuril Islands remains the stumbling block. After the war, the entire archipelago was incorporated into the Soviet Union, but Japan disputes control of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small uninhabited islands. Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that Moscow's sovereignty over these territories, which has the appropriate international legal framework, is not in question.

In March 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Moscow was terminating talks with Tokyo on a peace treaty due to Japan's unilateral restrictions on Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine. Moscow has also withdrawn from the dialogue with Tokyo on joint economic activities in the southern Kuril Islands and blocked the extension of Japan's status as a sectoral dialogue partner of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization.

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Dispute over Kuril Islands

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