Japan and Russia maintain distance over disputed islands
Japan’s prime minister today said he couldn’t understand why Russia will not consider returning four disputed islands to Japan, escalating a territorial row that has prevented the two sides from formally ending Second World War hostilities.
Japan has long demanded that Russia return four islands, which Moscow calls the Kurils and Tokyo the Northern Territories.
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday told a news conference Moscow was adhering to a decades-old commitment to return two of the four islands the Soviet Union occupied in the closing days of the war.
Putin said the declaration didn’t say when and on what conditions the islands could be handed over.
Asked by reporters to respond to Putin’s remarks, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said: “We don’t understand why Russia doesn’t return the four islands.”
Although the two countries have had diplomatic ties since 1956, their disagreement over the islands has prevented the two nations from signing a peace treaty that would end their wartime enmity and allow them to forge closer economic ties.
Putin is scheduled to make an official visit to Japan early next year. He refused to say whether the continuing dispute over the islands might delay his visit.
