Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reaffirmed commitment to unlock the potential of relations with Russia through securing the long-awaited peace treaty
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2019) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reaffirmed commitment to unlock the potential of relations with Russia through securing the long-awaited peace treaty.
Russia and Japan have not signed a permanent peace treaty after the end of World War II mainly due to the dispute over the Kuril Islands referred to as the Southern Kurils by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan which remains one of the main stumbling blocks in the peace talks.
"I intend to achieve the flourishing of great opportunities of the Japanese-Russian relations, having solved the territorial problem and having signed a peace treaty based on the 1956 joint declaration," Abe told the Japanese parliament on Friday, as broadcast by the legislature's online channel.
The prime minister also praised the progress of joint economic activities on the disputed Kuril Islands.
"Joint economic activities on the four northern islands have started advancing. For the third year running, [former Japanese residents of the islands] are carried by air transport to visit tombs there. Nagato agreements [reached during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan in 2016] are definitely moving forward," Abe added.
Russia and Japan agreed to discuss the possibility of joint economic activities on the contested islands during Putin's visit to Japan's Nagato in December 2016. In February 2017, the Japanese Foreign Ministry established a council for joint economic activities. In 2017 and 2018, the representatives of Japanese government and business circles traveled to the Kuril Islands to study on the spot the prospects for the development of projects in such fields as mariculture, greenhouse farming, tourism, wind power and recycling.
