Japan to focus efforts on territorial dispute ahead of Russian president`s visit
Tokyo, 10 June: Japan plans to prepare for a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin early next year by focusing on
creating an environment conducive to solving a long-standing territorial dispute, Japanese government officials said
Thursday [10 June]. Japan hopes to reaffirm the importance of resolving the row involving Russian-held islands off
Hokkaido and concluding a bilateral peace treaty in upcoming meetings between the two countries' foreign ministers
and their deputies.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka and senior Russian diplomat Aleksandr Alekseyev, who is expected to assume the
post of deputy foreign minister in charge of Japanese affairs soon, are scheduled to meet in Tokyo next Monday. Foreign
Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi will then visit Russia later this month for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,
who was named to the post in March, just before Putin won a second four-year term in the presidential election.
On Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Putin agreed during a meeting in the United States the
Russian president will visit Japan at the beginning of 2005 when the two countries mark the 150th anniversary of the
signing of a bilateral treaty of friendship. The islands claimed by Japan are Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the
Habomai group of islets. The dispute over ownership of the islands has prevented the two countries from signing a peace
treaty after the end of World War II.
In addition to exchanges between government leaders, Japan is hoping the steady implementation of an action plan
promoting cooperation between Japan and Russia on a wide range of issues and the bilateral eminent persons' group
launched in April will help foster a mood conducive to resolving the territorial row. The eminent persons' group,
jointly chaired by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov, comprises representatives from
political, business, academic, cultural and journalistic fields. Japan wants to move negotiations on the dispute
forward, as it expects that Putin, who retained his post as president with a landslide victory, has the political power
and will to resolve the issue, the officials said.
"The outcome depends on how much we can prod the president to make a political decision and create an
environment in which he can make such decision," a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said. However, there
is continuing opposition among Russian people about returning the islands to Japan. A senior Liberal Democratic Party
lawmaker suggested Putin may be indicating his willingness to resolve the issue as a way to nudge Japan to offer
cooperation. "He may be willing to resolve the issue, but that would be only after the atmosphere becomes
favourable as a result of successful cooperation between Japan and Russia," the lawmaker said.
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