In this year's edition of its Diplomatic Bluebook, Japan resumed sovereignty claims over Russia's Kuril Islands, to which it refers as the Northern Territories, after refraining from doing so during last year's bilateral agreement efforts at the highest level, the Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2020) In this year's edition of its Diplomatic Bluebook, Japan resumed sovereignty claims over Russia's Kuril Islands, to which it refers as the Northern Territories, after refraining from doing so during last year's bilateral agreement efforts at the highest level, the Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has presented the annual foreign policy report during a government session.
In the 2018 edition of the report, Tokyo maintained that "four Northern Islands belong to Japan," but withdrew this reference from the bluebook last year as Moscow and Tokyo were attempting to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution to the territorial deadlock. According to Kyodo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was aiming to reach a framework agreement on the peace treaty with Moscow during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan in June, but his attempts were condemned by Japanese opposition lawmakers.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has said that the 2020 report with renewed sovereignty claims was finalized while "taking into account various circumstances."
The dispute over a group of four Kuril islands � Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai � has been souring Moscow-Tokyo relations for decades and serves as the main obstacle to signing a World War II permanent peace treaty. Russia insists that its sovereignty over the Kurils, which legally became a part of the Soviet Union following World War II, is undisputed.
