The third Japanese business mission will pay a five-day visit to three disputed South Kuril Islands starting from October 1, acting head of Russia's Far-Eastern Sakhalin region Vera Shcherbina said on Thursday.
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2018) SAKHALINSK, September 27 (Sputnik) - The third Japanese business mission will pay a five-day visit to three disputed South Kuril Islands starting from October 1, acting head of Russia's Far-Eastern Sakhalin region Vera Shcherbina said on Thursday.
Earlier in September, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that the group would visit the disputed islands, collectively referred to as the Southern Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan, in October.
"The third business mission comprising 65 people on board the Japanese ship Etopirika will arrive in [the urban-type settlement of] Yuzhno-Kurilsk on October 1. The Japanese guests will stay on the Kurils between October 1-5. During this time, they are expected to visit the islands of Shikotan, Iturup and Kunashir. They will visit tourist, agricultural, wind power and aquaculture facilities," Shcherbina told reporters at a press conference.
She added that both sides wanted to discuss legal and economic issues, adding that they intended to continue cooperation in joint economic activities in 2019.
In December 2016, during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan, the two sides agreed to develop joint projects on the islands. The first two business missions visited the Kurils in June and October 2017 in order to discuss the future of the joint economic activities, which should conform with the legal positions of both countries. The joint projects envisage cooperation in the spheres of aquaculture, greenhouse farming, tourism, wind power and waste recycling.
The island of Habomai as well as Shikotan, Iturup and Kunashir are claimed both by Russia and Japan and remain a subject of a long-standing dispute between the countries. It has prevented the two sides from signing a permanent peace treaty after World War II, despite the fact that over 70 years have passed since the end of the war.
