- Joined
- Mar 22, 2015
- Location
- Untied States of America
Japanese and Russian leaders agreed to study joint rule of a group of contested islands, offering a road map to re-establishing full diplomatic relations after more than seven decades.
Economic and political ties between the two countries have been limited by Russia’s occupation of the islands, which lie to the northeast of Japan’s main islands, in the closing days of World War II. Both sides have claimed them, deadlocking negotiations.
“We have to change our approach to reach a peace agreement…we owe this to our future generations,” Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Russian President Vladimir Putin in an unusually fervent address at a conference in Russia’s eastern city of Vladivostok on Wednesday. “A joint administration [of the islands] is a way of doing this.”
Mr. Putin agreed to study the proposal, saying the islands are too insignificant to continue blocking relations.
“They don’t have fundamental importance to Russia’s economy,” he told Mr. Abe, sitting beside the leaders of China, South Korea and Mongolia. “Just look at the map of our country and its size.”
Mr. Putin went further, offering to sign a peace treaty without any conditions by the end of the year, and then work on the status of the islands, known as the South Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.
“The idea just came into my head,” he said. “I’m not joking about this.”
Japanese officials quickly poured cold water on the proposal. Mr. Abe’s chief aide, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters in Japan that the country needs to get the islands back before signing any deal. He confirmed that the two leaders, who have met more than 20 times in recent years, hadn’t previously discussed an unconditional peace accord.
Analysts cautioned against expecting a quick breakthrough. Implementing joint administration would take years at best, as the countries wrangle over jurisdiction of basic issues such as policing and taxes, said Alexander Gabuev, an Asia-focused researcher at think tank Moscow Carnegie Center.
“Everyone in Japan understands that Russia has no real incentives to make any meaningful concessions on the Kurils,” he said. “Everyone can live with the status quo but Abe and Putin want to create an impression that the two strongmen can sit down together and sort out all the problems.”
Mr. Putin is reaching out to Asia as he tries to shift Russia’s strategic balance eastward in response to Western sanctions.
As the Vladivostok conference kicked off, tens of thousands Russian and Chinese soldiers launched unprecedented joint military exercises along their shared border. At the conference, Mr. Putin revived the idea of a new railway connecting the entire Korean Peninsula to Russia—a concept also backed by South Korea’s leader, Moon Jae-in, who wants to reopen transportation links with North Korea—and touted Russian railways as an export channel for Mongolian minerals.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-russia-see-way-out-of-70-year-squabble-1536752725?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/TeH4MeGyfz
Economic and political ties between the two countries have been limited by Russia’s occupation of the islands, which lie to the northeast of Japan’s main islands, in the closing days of World War II. Both sides have claimed them, deadlocking negotiations.
“We have to change our approach to reach a peace agreement…we owe this to our future generations,” Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Russian President Vladimir Putin in an unusually fervent address at a conference in Russia’s eastern city of Vladivostok on Wednesday. “A joint administration [of the islands] is a way of doing this.”
Mr. Putin agreed to study the proposal, saying the islands are too insignificant to continue blocking relations.
“They don’t have fundamental importance to Russia’s economy,” he told Mr. Abe, sitting beside the leaders of China, South Korea and Mongolia. “Just look at the map of our country and its size.”
Mr. Putin went further, offering to sign a peace treaty without any conditions by the end of the year, and then work on the status of the islands, known as the South Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.
“The idea just came into my head,” he said. “I’m not joking about this.”
Japanese officials quickly poured cold water on the proposal. Mr. Abe’s chief aide, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters in Japan that the country needs to get the islands back before signing any deal. He confirmed that the two leaders, who have met more than 20 times in recent years, hadn’t previously discussed an unconditional peace accord.
Analysts cautioned against expecting a quick breakthrough. Implementing joint administration would take years at best, as the countries wrangle over jurisdiction of basic issues such as policing and taxes, said Alexander Gabuev, an Asia-focused researcher at think tank Moscow Carnegie Center.
“Everyone in Japan understands that Russia has no real incentives to make any meaningful concessions on the Kurils,” he said. “Everyone can live with the status quo but Abe and Putin want to create an impression that the two strongmen can sit down together and sort out all the problems.”
Mr. Putin is reaching out to Asia as he tries to shift Russia’s strategic balance eastward in response to Western sanctions.
As the Vladivostok conference kicked off, tens of thousands Russian and Chinese soldiers launched unprecedented joint military exercises along their shared border. At the conference, Mr. Putin revived the idea of a new railway connecting the entire Korean Peninsula to Russia—a concept also backed by South Korea’s leader, Moon Jae-in, who wants to reopen transportation links with North Korea—and touted Russian railways as an export channel for Mongolian minerals.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-russia-see-way-out-of-70-year-squabble-1536752725?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/TeH4MeGyfz
