Abe, Putin fail to agree on early conclusion of territorial talks

January 24, 2019

Moscow--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in their three-hour talks here on Tuesday, failed to agree to aim for an early conclusion of negotiations on the longstanding Tokyo-Moscow territorial row.

Meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, the two leaders did not go any further than affirming plans to hold bilateral talks on the issue at the foreign minister and deputy foreign minister levels respectively in February.

When he met the press jointly with Abe after the summit, Putin said work that requires patience is waiting.

During their talks in Singapore last November, Abe and Putin agreed to accelerate the two countries' efforts to conclude a World War II peace treaty based on the 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration.

The dispute over sovereignty over four Russian-controlled northwestern Pacific islands has prevented Japan and Russia from concluding a peace treaty to put a formal end to their wartime hostilities.

Abe was apparently picturing a scenario that the two sides will reach a broad accord as early as in June, when Putin is slated to visit Japan to attend the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, western Japan.

As the prime minister was unable to show concrete progress through the latest meeting with Putin, however, some observers now say it has become difficult to turn the scenario into reality.

Tokyo's position is that the islands, collectively known as the Northern Territories in the country, were seized from Japan by the former Soviet Union at the end of World War II, while Russia claims that the islands legally became Soviet territory as a result of the war.

The 1956 declaration called for the handover of two of the four islands--the Habomais and Shikotan--to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty. The document had no reference to the other two islands--Etorofu and Kunashiri.

"President Putin and I reaffirmed our resolve to take the leadership to powerfully promote the bilateral work on finding a solution acceptable to both sides,"

Abe told the joint press conference on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Putin said acceptance by the people of the two countries and support from the public will be needed, suggesting the need to cautiously improve the climate for the negotiations, apparently by having in mind Russian public opinion against possible handover of the Japanese-claimed islands.

The Japanese government did not disclose whether the latest Abe-Putin talks touched on the four islands' history or sovereignty, on which a wide gap between the two sides was shown during the Jan. 14 meeting between Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

During Tuesday's press conference, Putin made no reference to specifics of possible draft clauses of a peace treaty, a target date for reaching an accord or the sovereignty issue over the four disputed islands.

At their latest meeting, Abe and Putin instructed relevant officials to step up efforts to make progress in bilateral work on launching joint economic activities on and around the disputed islands.

Abe told the press conference that he hopes the foreign ministers of the two countries will hold their next meeting in Germany in February, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

The two leaders also agreed that the next air travel to the islands by former Japanese residents for visits to graves of their relatives there will be made as early as this summer.

In addition, they agreed to double the scale of personnel exchanges between the two countries to some 400,000 by promoting exchanges in the tourism industry and between universities.

This was the 25th meeting between Abe and Putin. They met for the third straight month from November last year.

Between a small group meeting and a working dinner, the two leaders also held talks that were only joined by their interpreters. Such one-on-one talks lasted about 50 minutes, longer than initially planned, according to Japanese government sources.

Abe told people around him that he and Putin could candidly exchange opinions on the peace treaty negotiations, the sources said.

The summit talks started about 45 minutes late and were joined by Kono and Lavrov.

Putin showed Abe around his office at the Kremlin for about five minutes as the prime minister showed interest in it. Jiji Press