Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi plans to discuss a peace treaty with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
According to the Japanese minister, the meeting will be held next week. Motegi announced that he intends to conduct a “frank exchange of views” with Lavrov. “This problem, which remains unresolved for more than 70 years after the war, in addition to Japanese-Russian relations, is also associated with peace and stability in the Far East and East Asia,” he emphasized.
A peace treaty between Russia and Japan has not been signed for more than 70 years. Tokyo calls the return of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai islands the condition for its conclusion. Moscow believes that the southern Kuril Islands became part of the USSR at the end of the Second World War, and sovereignty over them is not in doubt.
According to the joint declaration of the USSR and Japan from October 19, 1956, Moscow agrees to transfer to Japan two of the four islands of the southern Kuril Islands (Habomai and Shikotan) “with the fact, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of a peace treaty.”