Japan and Russia are concentrating on joint economic projects on the Kuril Islands in hope it will help to tackle the 70-year-old territorial dispute. However, Japan has protested the strengthening of the Russian military presence in the region. Experts believe Japan has only a voice as far as in Russian national security is concerned.
The Japanese government will concentrate on economic projects important for both Russia and Japan when working on settling the Kuril Islands dispute, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the parliament on Monday.
According to Abe, during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, he expressed regret over the growing Russian military presence on the Southern Kuril Islands.
In November 2016, Russia deployed the Bal and Bastion coastal missile systems to the islands.
Irina Romanova, the expert of the Russian International Affairs Council and assistant professor of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, in an interview with RIA Novosti was not inclined to attach much significance to Abe’s protests as a kind of “the last Chinese warning.”
“It not the first time in post-war history that this has happened, especially, in the past 20 to 25 years,” she said.
The analyst stressed that Tokyo has always kept a close eye on everything which touches upon the issue of the so-called “northern territories” (as the Japanese call the Kuril Islands) and reacted immediately to events there.
Japanese officials expected that Putin’s visit to Japan would lead to some progress in the territorial dispute, the expert noted.
“But in fact there was not and there could be not any progress. And properly speaking Russia had not sent such signals to Japan before the talks,” Romanova added.
Her opinion was shared by Dmitry Novikov, State Duma Deputy Chair of the Committee for International Affairs.
“Abe has the right to express his point of view; Russia has the right and the obligations to pursue the interests of its national security,” he told RIA Novosti.
However, economic cooperation between Russia and Japan is important now, according to the expert. “But that does not mean that we have to jeopardize our own national interests,” he stressed.
“Sakhalin and the Kurils are Russian territories. The interest of Russia should be protected here as well. It is normal that the military presence on these territories is strengthening today, since it was significantly reduced in the 1990s,” the deputy assumed.
Russian-Japanese relations have been improving since Putin visited Japan on December 15-16, 2016. The sides agreed to establish joint economic activities on the disputed islands with the aim to reach a peace treaty in the future, which they never signed after WWII.
The Kuril Islands, located between Russia's Sakhalin and Japan's Hokkaido islands, are the subject of a long-standing territorial dispute between Russia and Japan. Japan lays claims to Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan islands and the Habomai group of islets. The territorial dispute has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty after World War II.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.