Putin says conditions not yet met for breakthrough on territorial row

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MOSCOW, May 10 Kyodo -
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has indicated that conditions have not
been met yet for Russia and Japan to achieve a breakthrough toward resolving a
decades-old territorial dispute involving islands off Japan's northernmost main
island of Hokkaido.
''It is necessary (for the two countries) to prepare the conditions, to develop
the relations in all directions,'' Putin said of the long-standing territorial
row in an interview with Kyodo News and other Japanese media ahead of his
planned visit to Japan from Monday.
''In order to resolve such high-level and difficult problems, it is necessary
to show patience, attention to each other's interests,'' Putin said, noting
that the two countries need ''not to put the situation into a deadlock by
permanent pretensions and confrontation.''
His remarks suggest that Moscow is prioritizing boosting economic and trade
ties with Japan over rushing to settle the territorial dispute at a time when
expectations for a breakthrough have grown within the Japanese government since
the two countries agreed in February to take a ''creative and unconventional
approach'' on settling the issue.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso agreed
in their talks in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the capital of the Sakhalin region, to
intensify efforts toward resolving the decades-old dispute by taking a new
approach but tangible steps are yet to be seen.
Putin, who met the Japanese media for the first time since assuming the
premiership in May last year, said Tokyo ''still has not formulated its
position exactly'' on how to seek a resolution of the dispute.
The 56-year-old prime minister was referring to reported remarks by former
Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi calling for the return of ''3.5''
of the four Russian-controlled islands rather than the reversion of all of
them.
Yachi, currently a special Japanese government envoy on key diplomatic issues,
later denied that he had made the comments in an interview with the Mainichi
Shimbun newspaper in April. Prime Minister Aso maintains Tokyo will not
conclude a peace treaty with Moscow unless Russia confirms that all four
islands belong to Japan.
Tokyo has been calling for the return of all four islands -- Kunashiri,
Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group -- known in Japan as the Northern
Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kurils. The territorial dispute has
prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty.
Apart from the territorial issue, Putin indicated that Moscow expects to sign a
bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Tokyo during his visit to
Japan. The pact will pave the way for Tokyo to entrust Moscow with uranium
enrichment and allow Japan to export nuclear power plants to Russia.
The Russian prime minister also said an oil pipeline linking Eastern Siberia
and Russia's Far Eastern Pacific coast will be built as scheduled.
''In spite of the economic crisis, the financial crisis, these projects are in
fact supported by the federal budget and will not be sequestered,'' Putin said,
referring to the project to ship Siberian oil to Japan and other markets.
Putin said Russia's dual leadership of Medvedev and himself over the past year
has been functioning efficiently and that it is up to the efficiency of their
work to decide whether either of them will run in the next presidential
election slated for 2012.
''All the things we have agreed about are effectively working,'' Putin said. He
and Medvedev ''shall decide what to do in the future depending on the
efficiency of our work.''
During his three-day trip to Tokyo, Putin is scheduled to hold talks with Aso
and to attend a Japan-Russia business forum as part of exchanges with Japanese
business circles.
Aso and Medvedev are expected to hold talks on the sidelines of this year's
Group of Eight summit in Italy in July.
==Kyodo