Russia's Medvedev hints at some flexibility over territory row

MOSCOW, July 4 Kyodo - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has implied that two diplomatic documents issued in 1956 and 1993 would give ''positive impulses'' to help solve a long-standing territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of three islands and an islet group off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido.

In an interview with Kyodo News and Japanese public broadcaster NHK at the
Kremlin on Tuesday ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido,
Medvedev noted the importance to ''create positive impulses to move ahead (in
the territorial dispute) on the basis of the declarations,'' referring to the
1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration and the 1993 Japan-Russia Tokyo
Declaration.

In the 1956 document that ended the state of war between the two countries and
restored diplomatic ties between them, the Soviet Union agreed to return to
Japan two of the four -- Shikotan Island and the Habomai group of islets --
after the two countries conclude a peace treaty.

Then Japanese Prime Minister Ichiro Hatoyama and then Soviet Premier Nikolai
Bulganin issued the document in Moscow in October 1956.

In the 1993 Tokyo Declaration, Japan and Russia agreed to settle the issue of
ownership over the four islands based on the principle of law and order and
conclude a bilateral peace treaty at an early date. The islands referred to in
the document include bigger ones -- Kunashiri and Etorofu.

Then Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa and then Russian President Boris
Yeltsin signed the document in Tokyo in October 1993.

Medvedev's remarks seem to show flexibility over the territorial dispute as
compared with his predecessor Vladimir Putin who had acknowledged the
effectiveness of the 1956 joint declaration.
Putin, who became prime minister under Medvedev in May, had showed readiness to
settle the dispute with the return of the two smaller islets but appeared to
ignore the 1993 Tokyo Declaration.

Medvedev said, ''The lack of the corresponding agreement and the unsolved
border problem are surely an obstacle for the development of relations. But we
should neither exaggerate nor ignore this theme. It must be placed rationally
in our relations.''

''As for the territory problem, border question, the question of the
corresponding agreement, I could say we have a body of law to base our
discussion of these issues on. Consideration of these issues is going on not so
fast, and it's important not to create extra tension, but to create a positive
background for careful consideration,'' he said.

''Attempts to get ahead of time as a rule set one back. That's why we have to
give the problem a peaceful consideration, creating positive impulses to move
ahead on the basis of the declarations you have mentioned. That's exactly what
I spoke about during the meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Mr. (Yasuo)
Fukuda,'' he said.

Medvedev welcomed an expansion of economic relations between Japan and Russia,
saying, ''The volume of trade has increased noticeably, up to over $20 billion.
Investments have increased greatly, too. Big credits have been granted for
important projects.''

Asked about Japan-Russia cooperation over the atomic energy field, Medvedev
said, ''It's a very important cooperation, very important field of our mutual
interest, especially when we all are worried about energy security in future.''

''It will also be a subject to discuss at the G-8 summit. Nuclear energy is a
promising course, we have good cooperation in this field, and now meetings of
the corresponding group are being held,'' he said.

On a Russia-Japan agreement on the peaceful use of the nuclear energy that is
currently in talks, Medvedev said, ''An intergovernmental agreement is being
worked at now. The level of the document's readiness is quite good, but I don't
think we will manage to finish it by the summit and my visit. I would like the
document to be ready as soon as possible.''

Medvedev referred to the summit's main theme of global warming and said, ''Even
when we talk about such an important instrument as the 'Kyoto process,' not all
countries take part in it. If we talk about the post-Kyoto period...we must
take into consideration that the future must be ensured by all the large
economies. Only that way we will be able to achieve success.''

''In such a situation we cannot separate economies and countries, we must
achieve the reduction of emissions through the joint effort. The opposite is
unproductive,'' he said.

''The next global challenge is the food security. It is a very difficult
problem which hadn't been in the coordinated agenda of the Hokkaido summit at
first,'' he added.

''It's necessary to produce more food, in many cases to help directly those
countries in the most difficult situation, and also to change the international
system of regulations in this sphere,'' he said.

He welcomed recent developments over North Korea's nuclear development program,
saying, ''Our (North) Korean partners have taken some steps, including
dismantling of nuclear facilities, which encouraged us.''

On the U.S. missile defense system in Europe and NATO's expansion to Russian
borders, Medvedev said, ''These solutions don't contribute to the European
security, but create additional tension.''

''We neither raise tension nor become hysteric about it, we only tell our
partners openly that such measures do not enhance security in Europe. It would
have been much better to start working at a new contract basis to provide
security control in Europe,'' he said.

The G-8 leaders are scheduled to meet at a luxury hotel in the Lake Toya hot
spa resort in Hokkaido from Monday through Wednesday. The G-8 groups Britain,
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
==Kyodo