Tokyo reiterates its intention to conclude a peace treaty with Russia

The absence of a peace treaty with Russia is regrettable and Japan needs to resolve the territorial issue, said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. He spoke about this during a speech at the annual “National rally for the return of the northern territories.”

“It is extremely regrettable that 77 years after the end of the war, the issue of the northern territories remains unresolved, and a peace treaty has not yet been concluded between Japan and Russia … The Japanese government is determined to resolve the territorial issue and conclude a peace treaty,” leads his words TASS.

The agency at the same time draws Please note that in the text of the final statement of the event, for the first time since 2918, the expression “illegal occupation” is used in relation to the southern part of the Russian Kuril Islands.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, in turn, noted that Tokyo firmly adheres to the course for a peace treaty despite the difficult state of Russian-Japanese relations and the sanctions imposed by Japan against the Russian Federation due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Last time, Kishida announced his commitment to the policy of concluding a peace treaty with Moscow in January. Then the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that in relations between Russia and Japan now absent any meaningful dialogue, so it is “hardly necessary” to talk about the possibility of concluding a peace treaty.

On March 21, 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was ending negotiations with the Japanese authorities on concluding a peace treaty due to unilateral sanctions that Tokyo had imposed in connection with a special operation in Ukraine. In addition, Moscow canceled visa-free travel for the Japanese to the Kuril Islands and imposed a number of other restrictions on Tokyo.

Russia and Japan did not conclude a peace treaty following World War II because of the protracted dispute over the South Kuriles. The state of war between the two countries was officially ended in 1956, after which the USSR and Japan resumed diplomatic relations in accordance with the Moscow Declaration. According to the Japanese position, Russia must hand over to Japan the four southern islands of the Kuril chain. Moscow, on the other hand, recognizes the USSR declaration of 1956, which refers to the possibility of transferring the two islands after the conclusion of a peace treaty.