Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has promised to move forward in resolving a dispute with Russia over the Kuril Islands, TASS reports.
According to him, in the new negotiations, all the agreements reached between the two states on the disputed territories by the Japanese side will be observed. Suga stressed that he would make every effort to get the situation off the ground, and said that the Kuril Islands are a problem that needs to be solved, and not left to descendants.
As a result of the Second World War, a peace treaty was not concluded between Moscow and Tokyo. The main obstacle to its signing was the unresolved territorial dispute over the southern part of the Kuriles – the Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan islands and the Habomai group of islands.
The Japanese side calls the South Kurils “northern territories” and does not recognize Russian sovereignty over them. Moscow, in turn, does not recognize the very fact of the territorial dispute. Washington, like Tokyo, considers the South Kuril Islands to be part of Japan.
