Russia, Japan meet on WWII dispute in Moscow

MOSCOW: The foreign ministers of Russia and Japan met in Moscow yesterday pushing ahead with efforts to strike a peace deal and end a decades-old dispute over four strategic islands.

Meeting his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the resources for cooperation were ‘truly inexhaustible’ and should be used to work towards a peace agreement.

Japan and Russia have never signed a treaty ending World War II. The USSR invaded the far-eastern Kuril chain in the final days of the war and Japan refuses to give up its claim to them although the United Nations formally recognises them as Russian territory.

“It’s a difficult issue, we have to deal with the legacy of World War II, whose outcomes have been codified in the UN charter and Allied documents,” Lavrov said.

In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to accelerate talks on a peace agreement which would build on a 1956 Japan-USSR declaration which restored diplomatic ties.

The joint declaration said that the USSR agreed to hand over two of the islands – Habomai and Shikotan – to Japan following a peace deal. Japan however demanded sovereignty over all the disputed islands, which include Iturup and Kunashir and peace talks stalled. — AFP

view shows the tops of highrise buildings poking out from heavy fog in Yangzhou, in China’s eastern Jiangsu province yesterday. Authorities in the city issued a fog alert with heavy fog reducing visibility to 50 metres. — AFP photo

Lavrov (right) meets with Kono in Moscow. — AFP photo