Japan's Territorial Claim vs Russia's De Facto Control
Russia "Will Pursue New Weapon Deployment Strategy"
Russia has set the recognition of the Kuril Islands as Russian territory as a condition for resuming peace treaty negotiations with Japan.
On the 30th (local time), according to Russian media Interfax and other foreign reports, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, stated on his social media (SNS), "If the Kuril Islands issue is neatly resolved, who would oppose a peace treaty with Japan?" He added, "Along with the development of the Kuril Islands, a strategy to deploy new weapons will also be pursued."
Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had stated, "Japan remains committed to resolving the territorial dispute with Russia and concluding a peace agreement."
The Kuril Islands are an archipelago stretching 1,300 km between Japan's Hokkaido and Russia's Far East Kamchatka Peninsula, currently under Russia's effective control.
Japan claims sovereignty over four southern islands of the Kuril Islands?Kunashir, Iturup, the Habomai Islands, and Shikotan?calling them the "Northern Territories." These islands are currently under the jurisdiction of Russia's Sakhalin Oblast.
The 1956 diplomatic document "Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration," which came into effect when Japan and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations, states that after the conclusion of a peace treaty, the Soviet Union would hand over the Habomai Islands and Shikotan to Japan. However, the peace treaty was never concluded.
Subsequently, Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Japan, joining the West in imposing sanctions on Russia, designated Russia as a non-friendly country and suspended peace treaty negotiations.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to visit the Kuril Islands during a meeting with local businesspeople in Khabarovsk Krai in the Russian Far East on the 11th.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
