Tokyo still intends to negotiate to “clarify ownership” of the islands of Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan and Iturup, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a parliamentary session.
⠀
“We will act on the basis of the agreements reached at the Singapore Summit, as well as the agreements reached earlier and after that. There was talk in Singapore about speeding up negotiations on the basis of the 1956 Joint Declaration. start work on two islands, but the government’s position now is to clarify the ownership of the four islands and advance negotiations towards a peace treaty,” Kishida said.
⠀
Japan believes that it has the right to claim the four islands of the Kuril chain, despite the fact that following the results of the Second World War they became the territory of the USSR. Moscow’s position is that Russian sovereignty over them is beyond question.
⠀
On November 14, 2018, the leaders of Russia and Japan met in Singapore. As a result, Shinzo Abe, who held the post of prime minister at that time, said that the parties agreed to speed up the negotiation process on a peace treaty based on the Joint Declaration of 1956, in which the Soviet Union agreed to consider the possibility of transferring Tokyo Habomai and Shikotan after the conclusion of a peace treaty, and the fate of Kunashir and Iturupa was not affected.
⠀
Subsequently, as a response to Japanese sanctions due to a special operation in Ukraine, Russia refused to negotiate a peace treaty with Tokyo, and also stopped visa-free travel of Japanese citizens to the southern Kuriles. In addition, Moscow is withdrawing from the dialogue with Tokyo on the establishment of joint economic activities on these islands.
