Japan FM heads to Russia seeking Putin’s visit

TOKYO, Japan – Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday, September 20, left Japan for Russia to have talks over decades-old territorial disputes and to prepare the ground for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-delayed visit to Japan.

During the 3-day visit to Moscow through Tuesday, Kishida will meet with his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov to discuss bilateral relations including the territorial disputes, and “a range of global issues including Ukraine,” the foreign ministry has said.

Soviet troops seized 4 islands from the Kuril chain that lies off Russia’s far eastern coast and north of Japan – which calls them the Northern Territories — just after Japan surrendered in World War II.

The seven-decade-old dispute has hampered trade and prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal post-war peace treaty.

“I hope to have thorough discussions over the issue of Northen Territories,” Kishida told reporters ahead of his departure from Tokyo.

“Intense negotiations are expected but I hope to find a step towards a breakthrough in talks over a peace treaty, and make it a threshold for President Putin’s visit to Japan,” he said.

His tour comes after Japan last week lodged a protest with Russia after scrambling four jet fighters to intercept a foreign aircraft – believed to be Russian – which briefly violated its airspace.

It also comes a month after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe criticised Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to the disputed islands, aggravating a long-running dispute over the archipelago.

Abe had enjoyed warm ties with Putin having several meetings, but the Ukraine crisis emerged as an obstacle to the relationship as Japan sided with other Group of Seven (G7) nations in taking a tough line against Moscow over the issue. – Rappler.com