Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes that Japan and Russia will solve their territorial dispute and sign a peace deal based on trust built between the two leaders.
"We will solve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty based on trust built with [President Vladimir Putin]," Abe said after talks with the Russian leader on Wednesday, TASS reports.
Abe also stressed that he had a ‘substantive discussion" with Putin on the peace treaty. The talks were held only in the presence of interpreters, he noted. The Japanese premier expressed readiness to jointly with Putin put an end to the situation with the lack of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia, which has lasted for more than 70 years.
Abe also said he plans to visit Russia at the beginning of 2019.
"Next year, I will be meeting President Putin at the G20 summit (due in Japan’s Osaka on June 28-29), but prior to that, early next year, I am planning to visit Russia where we will be holding a summit meeting," he said.
Earlier, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters after the Russian and Japanese leaders’ meeting that Putin and Abe had agreed on intensifying Russian-Japanese talks on the peace treaty based on the 1956 declaration.
Russia and Japan have been in talks to sign a peace treaty since the mid-20th century. The main stumbling block to achieving this is the ownership of the Southern Kuril Islands. After the end of World War II, the Kuril Islands were incorporated into the Soviet Union. However, the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan Islands and the Habomai Islands is being challenged by Japan.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has stated many times that Russia’s sovereignty over the islands is beyond doubt. In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a joint declaration on ceasing the state of war and restoring diplomatic and consular relations, but no peace treaty has been signed so far.
