Abe, Putin to discuss military tensions, islands row

VLADISTOCK: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks yesterday during which they were expected to discuss heightened North Korea tensions and ways to promote joint economic activities on disputed islands off Japan’s Hokkaido.

Meeting on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok, Mr Abe is hoping to get Russia’s support for strengthening pressure on North Korea, which conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sunday following recent missile launches in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. The UN Security Council, of which Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member, is currently debating imposing fresh sanctions on North Korea, with Japan and the United States pushing for an oil embargo on the reclusive state.

But Russia, even as it condemned the nuclear test and seeks denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, has said more pressure on Pyongyang will risk aggravating the current situation and additional sanctions would be useless and ineffective. It says dialogue is the only possible way for a settlement of the North Korean problem.

In a speech given to the plenary session of the economic forum yesterday, Mr Abe stressed the need for the international community to apply “maximum” pressure on North Korea after the nuclear test as well as its launch of a ballistic missile that flew over northern Japan on Aug 29.

“Japan and Russia need to further deepen trust, strengthen both economic and security areas and establish a strong and stable pivot in Northeast Asia,” Mr Abe said in the session attended by Mr Putin.

The two leaders are also expected to discuss joint economic activities on the Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, an initiative Tokyo sees as paving the way toward resolving the long-standing territorial dispute over the islands and signing a post-World War II peace treaty.

As the two sides remain far apart on the sovereignty of the islands, they will need to find a way to conduct the activities that do not compromise their respective positions or create legal problems.

In the speech, Mr Abe underscored the need to “put an end to the unnatural state” of the two neighbours lacking a peace treaty between them 72 years after World War II. “Vladimir, why don’t the two of us fulfill that responsibility?” Mr Abe proposed.

The islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan and the Habomai islet group were seized by the Soviet Union after Japan’s surrender in August 1945 ended World War II. They are called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. The leaders are also set to confirm progress on trips by former Japanese residents to visit ancestral graves on the islands.