Putin arms buildup puts Abe on the defensive

RUSSIA/JAPAN: Russia is accelerating a military buildup on islands claimed by Japan, threatening to blow a hole in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to lure President Vladimir Putin into settling the dispute.

The government in Tokyo lodged a formal protest after 2000 Russian troops held military exercises earlier this month on the four islands, called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. A few days before, Russia paved the way for its first military airbase in the area.

Russia’s twin strikes came as diplomats from both countries met on February 6 to discuss joint economic development of the territories.

Abe the next day marked Japan’s annual ‘‘Northern Territories Day’’ with a pledge that he and Putin would resolve the ‘‘abnormal’’ lack of a peace treaty after World War II.

Failure to end the dispute over the islands seized by Soviet troops at the end of the war would deal a severe blow to Abe, who’s poured time and energy into seeking a breakthrough since coming to power in 2012. For the Kremlin, cooler ties with Tokyo may put at risk promised Japanese investment and undermine Russian efforts to peel away a key US ally. While determined to stay close to the US, Abe’s eager to strike a deal with Russia partly to counterbalance China’s growing economic and military power in the region.

‘‘The Japanese side has unrealistic ideas about the possible time frame for all this,’’ said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, a research group that advises the Kremlin. Russia’s expanding its military presence ‘‘to damp expectations,’’ he said.

The two leaders have met 20 times, including at a hot springs resort in Abe’s hometown of Nagato in 2016. He’s due to visit Putin’s hometown in May to address the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The premier’s also under fire at home. ‘‘It’s good to have warm relations at the top level, but just because you are friends doesn’t mean they will give the islands back,’’ said Yasuhide Nakayama, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Japan’s lower house of parliament and a member of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. Russia’s military exercises sent ‘‘the worst possible message,’’ he said.

Russia sent a clear signal that it’s in no rush. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cautioned in a state television interview on February 11 that Russia and Japan need to build up their relations before reaching a territorial agreement, a process he said took more than 40 years with China.

‘‘The Japanese side is in a hurry,’’ and there’ll be ‘‘enormous disappointment’’ if there’s no progress, said James Brown, an expert in Russo-Japanese relations at Temple University in Tokyo.