Russian, Japanese diplomats discuss possible economic projects to implement on South Kuril Islands

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and his Japanese counterpart Takeo Akiba have held the second round of consultations in Moscow, discussing the possible joint economic projects to be implemented on the South Kuril Islands, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. "The parties discussed a number of possible important and mutually beneficial joint economic projects and agreed to submit the results of their work to the two countries’ authorities," the statement reads. South Kuril Islands issue Since the mid-20th century, Russia and Japan have been holding consultations in order to clinch a peace treaty as a follow-up to World War II. The Kuril Islands issue remains the sticking point since after WWII the islands were handed over to the Soviet Union while Japan has laid claims to the four southern islands. In 1956, the two countries signed a common declaration on ending the state of war and restoring diplomatic and all other relations, however, a peace treaty has still not been reached. Moscow has stated many times that Russia’s sovereignty over the islands could not be questioned. On December 15-16, 2016, the Russian president visited Japan for the first in 11 years. The peace treaty issue and the South Kuril Islands issue topped the agenda, while bilateral cooperation was also discussed. Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe adopted a joint statement saying that consultations on joint economic activities on the South Kuril Islands could become an important step on the way to a peace treaty. The first consultations on joint economic activities, involving the Russian and Japanese deputy foreign ministers, were held in Tokyo on March 18. After the consultations, Japan said that participants in the meeting had presented their specific plans on cooperation in healthcare, tourism industry and fishery. Read more