RF-Japan peace treaty problem solution delicate process-Nesterenko.

29/12 Tass 272

MOSCOW, December 29 (Itar-Tass) - The settlement of the Russia-Japan
peace treaty problem is a delicate process requiring respect for the
positions of the sides, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei
Nesterenko said on Tuesday.

"The building of trust in the search for a mutually acceptable
solution to the peace treaty problem is a delicate process requiring a
very respectful and attentive attitude to the positions of the partners,"
the diplomat stressed.
"Issues related to the results of World War II are taken especially
sensitively in the Russian society," he said. "Our country has sustained
the largest losses in this war, this fact should be taken into account
when we speak about the problem of the military past," he added. According
to the RF Foreign Ministry spokesman, "Trust is built not only by words,
but also by deeds."
Moscow is certain that there will be more real, not demonstrative
trust between the two countries "the more we develop large-scale
cooperation."
On Monday, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said at a meeting
with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow that the Japanese
leadership "views Russia as a partner in the Asia-Pacific region and is
interested in building friendly relations with it." He drew attention to
the unsettled territorial problem in the bilateral relations stressing
that Tokyo "sincerely wishes its settlement to advance."
"I hope for building constructive interaction with you," Lavrov said.
"The president of Russia and prime minister of Japan has set the task to
build the partnership relations both bilaterally and in the international
arena. We are interested in this."
Last week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin admitted
that "disagreements persist" between the two countries on the territorial
demarcation problem.
"There is only one way to overcome the differences - to hold a
dialogue," he said. "I also want to stress that the dialogue should be
based on mutual respect and be calm, measured and exclude any statements
that would run counter to these principles of mutual respect and balance
in this dialogue," the diplomat noted.
"We take notice of the Japanese partners' statements of "illegal
occupation" by Russia of the four disputed islands," Borodavkin continued.
"We have quite a different stance. We think that Russia did not occupy
anything, these territories were given to us by the WW2 results, which is
fixed in the corresponding documents on the war results, in the UN
Charter," he said. "Therefore, even if Japan holds to such a radical
position, it is inappropriate to voice it, in our view," he stressed.
Russia has given several concessions to Japan in the dispute. For
example, Russia has introduced visa-free trips for Japanese citizens to
the Kuril Islands. Japan's fishermen are also allowed to catch sea
bioresources in Russia's exclusive economic zone.
The positions of the two sides have not substantially changed since
the 1956 Joint Declaration, and a permanent peace treaty between Japan and
Russia still has not been concluded.
On July 7, 2005, the European Parliament issued an official statement
recommending the return of the territories in dispute, which Russia
immediately protested. As late as 2006, Russia's Putin administration
offered Japan the return of Shikotan and the Habomais (about 6% of the
disputed area) if Japan would renounce its claims to the other two
islands, referring to the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 which
promised Shikotan and the Habomais would be ceded to Japan once a peace
treaty was signed.
Japan has offered substantial financial aid to the Kuril Islands if
they are handed over. However, by 2007, residents of the islands were
starting to benefit from economic growth and improved living standards,
arising in particular from expansion in the fish processing industry. As a
result, it is thought that islanders are less likely to be won over by
Japanese offers of financial support. On February 6, 2008, Japan Today, an
English-language news site in Japan, reported that the Russian president
had suggested to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to finally settle
all territorial disputes over the Kuril Islands and had sent him a letter
inviting him to come to Russia for discussions.
The dispute over the Kuril Islands was further exacerbated on July 16,
2008, when the Japanese government published new school textbook
guidelines directing teachers to say that Japan has sovereignty over the
Kuril Islands. The Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs announced on July
18, "[these actions] contribute neither to the development of positive
cooperation between the two countries, nor to the settlement of the
dispute" and reaffirmed its sovereignty over the islands.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
met in Sakhalin on February 18, 2009 to discuss the Kuril Islands issue.
Aso said after the meeting that they had agreed to speed up efforts to
resolve the dispute so that it would not be left to future generations to
find a solution.
In Russia most of the population, as well as the mass media, strongly
oppose any territorial concessions to Japan.
-0-ezh/gor