Japan believes Putin’s visit is the last chance for Abe to solve Kuril Islands dispute
A deputy of the lower house of Japan's ruling parliament, the Liberal Democratic Party, who is also the former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Hakubun Shimomura, believes that the upcoming December visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan is the last chance for Prime Minister Shinzō Abe to resolve the territorial dispute, TASS reported.
According to Kyodo News, he expressed this opinion on Sunday while on Fuji TV.
“This visit is the last chance. It is not so easy to deal with Russia,” he said.
During another interview, Shimomura said that “if the problem of the 'northern territories’, which are the South Kuril Islands, is not solved now, then it will not be solved for a very long time. I think Prime Minister Shinzō Abe believes the same. A peace treaty cannot be signed without finding the solution to the problem of the ownership of the Islands,” Kyodo quoted Shimomura as saying.
Moscow and Tokyo are currently and actively preparing for Putin's visit to Japan, which, according to the Russian leader's aide, Yuri Ushakov, will take place on the 15th and the 16th of December.
The leaders of the two countries discussed this issue during a meeting at the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Peru on the 19th of November.
Russia and Japan have been negotiating the signing of a peace treaty, based on the results of the Second World War, since the middle of the last century. The main obstacle is the issue of the ownership of the southern part of the Kuril Islands. After the end of the war, all Kuril Islands were incorporated into the USSR. However, the ownership of the southern part of the ridge has been disputed by Japan.
In 1956, a joint declaration on the ending of the state of war between the USSR and Japan, and the restoration of the diplomatic relations was signed. However, a peace treaty has not been signed since then.