Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said the comments by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, concerning islands off Hokkaido that are controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan, were “unacceptable.”
Hajime Hayashi, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s European Affairs Bureau, registered the protest with Russian Ambassador to Japan Evgeny Afanasiev, ministry officials said.
Kishida told a news conference on Friday that Morgulov’s remarks, reported midweek by Russia’s Interfax news agency, were “unproductive and false,” and at odds with a bilateral agreement to hold talks about the islands.
“I hope for a constructive dialogue and not a public argument. I would like to urge Russia to deal in a constructive manner to move forward Japan-Russia ties,” Kishida said.
Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islets were seized by the Soviet Union following Japan’s surrender in World War II in August 1945. The ensuing territorial dispute has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from concluding a postwar peace treaty.
In 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to speed up negotiations to work out a solution acceptable to both sides over the peace treaty issue.
Morgulov’s reported remarks followed a recent string of Japanese protests over Russian officials’ visits to the islands and came at a sensitive time, with the two countries making preparations for Putin’s visit to Japan later this year.
Japan has been fighting for recognition of its ownership of the islands, while Russia, in line with the Soviet Union’s 1956 joint statement with Japan, maintains that it will return Shikotan and the Habomai islets following the conclusion of the peace treaty.
- The islands are called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.
The comment represents the Russian government’s official stance toward the four Northwestern Pacific islands, Zakharova said.
She also said on the day to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the now-defunct Soviet Union’s victory in the war against Japan that the territorial issue was already resolved 70 years ago.
The Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido were incorporated into Soviet territory as a result of World War II and based on law, Zakharova maintained, stressing there was no question about Russia’s sovereignty and judicial authority over the islands.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has already complained that refusing territorial talks ran counter to past agreements between the top leaders of the two countries and, therefore, was totally unacceptable.
Kyodo
4/9/15
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Kishida in Moscow for talks on territorial dispute...
ReplyDeleteForeign Minister Fumio Kishida was set to hold high-level talks Monday in Moscow in hopes of making progress on the long-standing bilateral territorial dispute and restart negotiations for concluding a World War II peace treaty.
Officials in the Abe administration said Kishida also hoped to lay the groundwork during his talks with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for a visit to Japan by President Vladimir Putin this year.
Kishida is on a four-day trip to Russia that started Sunday.
Japan has been angered by repeated visits by Russian Cabinet members to some of the Russian-held islands claimed by Japan. The decades-old dispute has prevented the two nations from signing a peace treaty over World War II.
“I foresee that talks regarding the Northern Territories will be tough, but I would like to find a way to break the stalemate over the peace pact negotiations,” Kishida told reporters ahead of his departure Sunday.
The four disputed islands — seized by the Soviet Union following Japan’s surrender in August 1945 — are called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.............Kyodo
21/9/15