The situation around concluding a peace treaty between Russia and Japan is not locked in a stalemate, but Tokyo’s position hinders its signing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a youth educational forum dubbed the "Territory of Meanings."
Lavrov said that ho doesn't think the situation around signing the peace treaty with Japan is a deadlock. "Now everything bumps into our Japanese colleagues’ reluctance to recognize the outcome of World War II, thus creating obstacles for signing the peace treaty," TASS cited him as saying.
The Russian top diplomat recalled that last year Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on intensifying talks on this issue based on the 1956 Joint Declaration, which stipulates that "first a treaty needs to be signed, and then the issue should be considered not about returning, but about handing over two islands as a good will gesture."
"Meanwhile, we believe that the signing of the peace treaty should be aimed at confirming the reality, which occurred after World War II and the recognition of its outcome, in accordance with which all four South Kuril Islands are Russia’s territory," he noted. "Here our Japanese colleagues cannot change their position," Lavrov stressed.
