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Will 70-Year-Old Kuril Islands Spat Be Resolved During Putin’s Japan
Will 70-Year-Old Kuril Islands Spat Be Resolved During Putin’s Japan Visit?
18:04 13.12.2016(updated 18:32 13.12.2016)
https://sputniknews.com/world/201612131048506640-russia-japan-putin-visit/
With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan just a day away, both
senior officials and ordinary people in Japan are pinning high hopes on the
event, which they think can help resolve a bilateral territorial dispute
pertaining to the Kuril Islands, according to RIA Novosti political analyst
Vladimir Ardayev.
The Kuril Islands became part of the Soviet Union after Japan’s defeat in
World War II under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951.
Since then, they have remained a bone of contention between Moscow and
Tokyo, preventing them from signing a peace treaty to formally end the war.
Japan insists that the four southernmost islands should be returned.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has signaled his determination
to hold the upcoming talks with President Putin in such a way that it would
already be possible “to put an end to the territorial dispute [within] the
current generation.” Abe made the statement during a meeting with a group of
former residents of the South Kurils from Japan, who gave him a letter to
the Russian President in which they asked him to visit the islands, if only
once in a while.
In this context, Ardayev quoted Oriental expert Anatoly Koshkin as saying
that Abe’s statement can hardly be interpreted as Tokyo’s drive to make a
breakthrough in the negotiating process, especially given the audience whom
he met.
Koshkin also said that the Japanese government is unlikely to allow the
country’s national companies to carry out any economic activity with Russian
counterparts on the disputed islands because it would mean a de facto
recognition of their being part of Russia.
“Abe will be unable to change Japan’s irreconcilable stance on the matter,
for the country’s public opinion will not allow him to do so. The
overwhelming majority of Japanese insist that all four islands should be
returned unconditionally.
By the way, Russian opinion polls indicate that already 77 percent of
respondents are against returning the islands to Japan as such,” Koshkin
said.
In contrast, Gevorg Mirzayan, Associate Professor of Finance University in
Moscow, believes that Abe will make every effort to reach a compromise
during the upcoming talks. “Such a keynote statement cannot be regarded as
mere words, and Shinzo Abe will do his best to arrive at a political
accommodation during the negotiations. He will proceed not only from his own
political aims, but also from Japan’s national interests,” Mirzayan said.
He recalled that Vladimir Putin had proposed a formula which first
stipulates creating an atmosphere of mutual confidence by developing and
establishing bilateral economic relations, and then discussing the
territorial issue and the peace treaty. “This can be considered a sort of
road map to resolve the long-term territorial dispute. If Tokyo accepts it
as the first step towards the development of the so-called ‘northern
territories’ within the framework of interim solutions, the movement towards
the development of cooperation with Russia will really start,” Mirzayan
pointed out.
Meanwhile, President Putin, who starts his visit to Japan on December 15,
said that Russia is ready to consider joint work with Tokyo on the Kuril
Islands, with conditions due to be as liberal as possible.
“As regards the Southern Kuril Islands, there are different possible
options. We are ready to consider joint efforts on one, two, three, or four
islands.The terms are important, but they have to be as liberal as
possible,” Putin told the Nippon TV channel and the Yomiuri newspaper, as
quoted by the Kremlin.
Source: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71869
