The process has begun: Lavrov announced the start of negotiations with Japan
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, announced the start of negotiations on the issue of a peace treaty with Japan, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The website of the Russian Foreign Ministry reports this.
“In accordance with the instructions of our leaders following the summit meetings in Singapore in November and in Buenos Aires in December last year, we are starting today negotiations on the issue of a peace treaty,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov also called for working on a peace treaty without controversial one-sided rhetoric.
“I would like to once again urge our Japanese colleagues to strictly follow the agreements of our leaders, both in the form of organizing our negotiations and, of course, on the substance of the work on the peace treaty,” he said.
Lavrov also repeated Moscow’s position regarding the basic conditions for a constructive course of negotiations:
“Today we confirmed our readiness to work on the basis of the 1956 Declaration, which means, first of all, the immutability of the very first step - recognition by our Japanese neighbors of the results of World War II in full, including the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over all the islands of the South Kuril chain.”
Currently, Tokyo's interests are represented in the negotiations by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to visit Russia at the end of January. During this trip, he will negotiate a peace treaty with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The signing of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan is hampered by the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands, which has not been resolved since World War II. Tokyo lays claim to the Kuril Islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup and Habomai, while Moscow insists that the islands became the territory of the USSR following World War II.
Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe already stated that the dialogue with Russia regarding the signing of a peace treaty has been completed. He promised that he personally, together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, would “put an end to this,” and he also discussed the need to obtain the consent of the residents of the Kuril Islands to cross the Japanese islands.
As PolitNavigator reported, Another protest against the possible transfer of the southern Kuril Islands to the Japanese took place under the building of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. Those gathered chanted “Stop selling Russia!”
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