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Post by Admin on Jul 28, 2016 18:52:34 GMT
 Recent events have brought focus to one of the less well-known island disputes in Asia. The Kremlin announced it will deploy military forces to the Kuril Islands, or as Japan calls the island chain, the Northern Territories. This announcement came only three weeks after a private meeting between Putin and Abe in Moscow that unsurprisingly did not lead to any major breakthroughs in this prolonged conflict. The ongoing dispute over the islands is a vestige of World War II, which has become a central element of Russo-Japanese relations. The dispute dates back to the 17th century, with both parties asserting sovereignty over the territory today because they claim to have first discovered or inhabited the islands. The San Francisco Peace Conference after WWII added to the list of prior treaties purporting to settle the fate of the islands but effectively only furthered ambiguity on the issue. While it is safe to say that both countries have some claims on the islands grounded in history and treaties, the islands have been under Russian administration since 1945. As a consequence, Japan and the Soviet Union/Russia never signed a peace treaty following WWII and the island dispute remains unresolved; lying low when relations are good, but flaring up periodically. The most serious post-WWII attempts at settling the issue in 1998 and 2001 both failed.  The islands are strategically important to Russia because they guarantee safe access through the Sea of Okhotsk to the Pacific Ocean for the Russian Navy. Russia’s military presence also serves to strengthen its involvement in East Asian affairs – although this probably does little to assuage Putin’s fear of fading Russian influence in the Pacific in light of Chinese and U.S. strength. On the other side of the dispute, the Japanese people, especially conservatives in Hokkaido, are emotionally attached to the islands and resource-starved Japan could certainly use the resource-rich Exclusive Economic Zone surrounding the islands.  Given these entrenched positions, the dispute is at a deadlock. Abe’s intentions of engaging in peace talks with Russia “with a new approach, free of any past ideas” is effectively dead on arrival. The militarization of the islands by Russia only cements the status quo and the deadlock in the conflict. For Western observers, there are two concerns that make it worthwhile to follow this relatively minor island dispute: the potential for increased Russian military strength in the Pacific, and the implications for Japan’s continued support of Western sanctions against Russia – particularly relevant given the EU’s extension of sanctions for another year. |
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Post by Admin on Aug 31, 2016 18:29:22 GMT
 Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Japan in December, Moscow and Tokyo confirmed Tuesday.  The schedule for the visit could be decided when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets Putin later this week at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Japan's top government spokesman said. "I believe the most important thing in diplomacy is trust between the two leaders,” Yoshihide Suga said. “In that respect I think Prime Minister Abe and President Putin have that already in common. And we would thus like to negotiate the return of the four islands along the lines of the new approach signaled by Putin in the early meeting between the two leaders." Suga also said the "new approach" to Japan-Russia relations was to focus on economic issues. He avoided giving a straight answer on whether Japan could accept a compromise in which all four islands were not returned to Japan, saying only that the question of the four islands must be "made clear." |
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Post by Admin on Sept 4, 2016 18:53:49 GMT
 Ruling out the return of the Southern Kuril Islands, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sept.1 that Moscow was open to the idea of a compromise with Japan. “We don’t trade in territories,” Putin told Bloomberg in an interview. He added that Russia “would very much like to find a solution to this problem with our Japanese friends.”  “We had a treaty signed in 1956 and surprisingly it was ratified both by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and by the Japanese parliament,” Putin said. “And then the Japanese side refused to implement it, and after that the Soviet Union also, so to say, nullified all agreements reached within the framework of the treaty.”  When asked about an agreement in 2004, under which Russia ceded the Tarabarov Island and half of the Bolshoi Ussuriski Island on the Amur River to China as a final settlement of the border dispute between the two countries, Putin said, if Russia could reach a similarly high level of trust” with Japan as it enjoys with China “then we can find some sort of compromise.” |
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Post by Admin on Sept 6, 2016 18:27:20 GMT
 Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe has urged “a new era” to be established in relations between Moscow and Tokyo after talks with Russian President Putin at an economic forum in Vladivostok, as both states are still engaged in territorial dispute. On Saturday, PM Abe called on President Putin to “take responsibility” to boost the bilateral ties, while talking to the Russian leader on the second and last day of a major economic forum in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.  “Let us overcome all difficulties and leave the people of the next generation a world in which our two countries will reveal their powerful potential. Let's put an end to this abnormal situation, which lasted 70 years, and together launch a new era in Japanese-Russian relations,” Abe said. Moscow and Tokyo have still not signed a peace treaty following the end of World War II. The key stumbling block remains the seizure of four Japanese islands by the Soviet Union during the last days of the conflict. Over the past decades Tokyo repeatedly stressed that a peace treaty with Moscow is linked to handing back control of the territories. Russia maintains that the Soviet Union’s sovereignty over the island was internationally recognized under the agreements signed after the WWII. While addressing the issue, President Putin stressed that signing a peace deal remains a priority for both countries despite “different views” on the matter. “We are united in one – the problem should be solved,” he said. |
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Post by Admin on Sept 30, 2016 18:33:14 GMT
Despite the fact that Abe is resolved to make progress in the territorial dispute over the South Kuril Islands, the majority of Japanese are more sceptical. While the majority insists on returning the "Northern Territories," recent polls show that young Japanese are not interested in the issue.  In turn, according to a Russian poll, 53 percent of respondents believe that the Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai islands are Russian and will remain part of Russia. At the same time, 42 percent said Russian-Japanese should hold talks and reach a mutual agreement on the issue. Finally, only one percent said all the islands should be returned to Japan.  Moreover, 31 percent said that Tokyo is an important partner for Moscow. Altogether, over 50 percent described Japan as a friendly country. Discussions have recently intensified over the territorial dispute between the two countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Abe discussed it at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 2-3. Putin is also expected to visit Japan later this year. Recently, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Tokyo considered a peace agreement with Russia, with two islands returning to Japan and the other two in the future. |
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