Japanese PM declares readiness to work on peace treaty with Russia

 Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed his commitment to work to resolve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty with Russia.

"I will pursue developing the entire complex of Japanese-Russian ties, including signing of a peace treaty," the prime minister announced on Friday.

At the same time, he stressed there will be no peace agreement with Russia without resolving the territorial issue, TASS reported.

The day before, the Japanese Prime Minister held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone. Following the conversation, he emphasized that a peace treaty between the two countries could be concluded only after resolving the ownership issue of the Kuril Islands’ southern part. According to Kishida, Tokyo’s stance on this issue remains unchanged.

As the prime minister noted, during the talks, the sides agreed to further negotiate a peace treaty based on existing agreements, in particular, those reached in 2018 in Singapore after a meeting between Putin and then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Meanwhile, Kishida expressed his willingness to build trusting relations with the Russian leader and hold personal meetings with him.