TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2021) Tokyo will continue to negotiate with Moscow on the ownership of four disputed Kuril Islands, known as Northern Territories in Japan, and the conclusion of a peace treaty, the Japanese Foreign Ministry outlined in the 2021 Diplomatic Bluebook published on Tuesday.
"The most difficult issue in relations between Japan and Russia is the issue of the Northern Territories. The Northern Territories are islands that are subject to the sovereignty of our country. The government is actively negotiating with Russia and continues the close dialogue at the level of heads of state and foreign ministers on the ground of [our] basic stance � to resolve the issue of ownership of the Northern Territories and conclude a peace treaty. The government, under the strong leadership of the heads of Japan and Russia, will continue to persistently negotiate with Russia on the solution of the issue of the ownership of the Northern Territories and the conclusion of the peace treaty," the document says.
Moscow-Tokyo relations have long been complicated by the fact that they have never signed a permanent peace treaty following World War II. The main stumbling block is their dispute over the Kurils, which are under Russian administration as part of its Sakhalin Region.
In November 2018, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to accelerate peace treaty talks on the basis of the Soviet-era joint declaration. The document stipulates, among other things, that the Soviet Union would transfer two of the disputed islands � Habomai and Shikotan � to Japan following the conclusion of a peace treaty. The agreement by the two leaders to use the declaration as the basis for peace negotiations spurred a series of meetings held the following year by Putin and Abe and the countries' foreign ministers.
