“Territorial dispute with Japan is over”, Russian Foreign Minister says

5 comments

1. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said in an interview with the government-owned TV channel 1 on 18 August that for Russia, “all territorial disputes” with other countries, including Japan, are over. The Russian Foreign Ministry released the video.

   This can be taken as an indication that Russia has no intention of further negotiating the Northern Territories (Kuril Islands) issue, the biggest issue in Japan-Russia relations, and is likely to provoke a backlash from the Japanese side.

   Lavrov cited President Putin’s recent statement that there is no territorial dispute between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) member states, which are in conflict over the invasion of Ukraine: ‘We have no territorial disputes of any kind with the NATO side. In general, we already have no territorial disputes with any country, including Japan”.

   In March last year, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it would suspend negotiations on the conclusion of a peace treaty, including the Northern Territories issue, because of Japan’s unfriendly response in imposing sanctions against Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.

   In an interview reported by the Interfax news agency on 16 March, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Rudenko said that negotiations on a treaty on friendship and cooperation were impossible under the current circumstances in which Japan imposes sanctions on Russia. (Kyodo)

2. is Japan happy with that?

3. Hasn’t that basically always been the case for most territorial disputes? How many cases in modern history have there been where the controlling nation gave land back to the disputing nation voluntarily?

4. I would have assumed this would be the case as soon as Russia started fighting Ukraine. It doesn’t mean that talks will not resume sometime in the future when things are less turbulent

5. This is just posturing.