TOKYO, March 6. /TASS/. The likelihood of a resumption of Japan-Russia peace treaty talks currently equals zero, Michito Tsuruoka, associate professor at Japan’s Keio University, said.

"The likelihood that talks on a peace treaty and jurisdiction over the Northern Territories (the name given to the southern part of Russia’s Kuril islands in Japan - TASS) will continue currently equals zero," he pointed out at a briefing at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.

Commenting on the Japanese authorities’ attitude to the issue of a peace treaty and "the Northern Territories," the expert admitted that current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was far less personally interested in it than late ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, one of whose foreign policy priorities was to improve relations with Moscow to resolve the territorial dispute and make a peace treaty.

From the mid-20th century until their recent suspension, Moscow and Tokyo had been holding talks in an attempt to hammer out a peace treaty as a follow-up to fighting between the two countries at the tail end of World War II. The issue of the southern Kuril Islands has perennially remained the key sticking point in such talks, however. In 1945, jurisdiction over the entire archipelago was awarded to the Soviet Union. Tokyo, however, laid claim to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir and 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, Moscow suspended peace treaty talks with Tokyo following Japan’s move to impose unilateral sanctions on Russia due to the situation in Ukraine. Russia also pulled out of dialogue on joint economic activities on the southern Kuril islands and blocked the extension of Japan’s status as sectoral dialogue partner in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization.