TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th April, 2019) The officials from Russian and Japanese foreign ministries held talks in Tokyo on Monday to discuss joint economic activity on the southern Kuril Islands, Japanese media reported, citing diplomatic sources in the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
Japan was represented by Hideki Uyama, the deputy director-general of the European Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, while Nail Latypov, the deputy director of Consular Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, joined the talks from the Russian side, according to the Kyodo news agency.
The diplomats also touched upon the issue of establishing such conditions for the Japanese nationals to visit the southern Kurils, called the Northern Territories by Tokyo, that would not go against the official positions of both nations.
Relations between Moscow and Tokyo have long been strained by the fact that the two nations never signed a peace treaty following the end of the World War II. The deal was never reached due to a heated dispute over a group of Kuril islands � Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai � that Russia has sovereignty over. They are also claimed by Tokyo.
However, the nations agreed to discuss the possibility of joint economic activities on the islands during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan back in December 2016.
In February 2017, the Japanese Foreign Ministry set up a council for joint economic activities. In 2017 and 2018, the representatives of Japanese government and business visited the islands to probe the prospects for the development of projects in such fields as mariculture, greenhouse farming, tourism, wind power and recycling.
