|
| Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, gestures while speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at a hot springs resort in Nagato, western Japan, Dec 15, 2016. (Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP) |
NAGATO, Japan — The leaders of Russia and Japan held talks at a hot springs resort in western Japan on Thursday on a territorial dispute that has divided their countries for 70 years.
A major breakthrough is seen as unlikely. The disagreement over the four islands has kept the two countries from signing a peace agreement
For Russian President Vladimir Putin, the summit meeting in Nagato city marks his first official visit to a G-7 country since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited Putin even though the G-7 nations, including Japan, still have sanctions on Russia. The talks will move to Tokyo on Friday.
On Thursday, Japan and Russia agreed to revive security talks and start discussing economic cooperation on the disputed islands.
Abe said he and Putin spent much of their three-hour meeting discussing the dispute over four islands seized by the former Soviet Union in the closing days of World War II, and a peace treaty officially ending the two countries' wartime hostilities. A major breakthrough is seen as unlikely.
The disagreement over the four southern Kuril islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, has kept the two countries from signing a peace agreement.
"We had in-depth discussions on a peace treaty," Abe told reporters.
He said the two leaders also discussed possible joint economic projects on the disputed islands. Abe hopes such economic cooperation will help solve the territorial dispute and bolster ties.
Abe did not say if there was any progress on the territorial issue.
The two leaders also talked about Syria, with Abe conveying to Putin his concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation and Putin offering to work with other countries to settle the Syrian problem, a Japanese government spokesman said.
|
| Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives at Yamaguchiube Airport in Ube, western Japan. Putin arrived in Japan on Thursday for a two-day summit that marks his first official visit to a G-7 country since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. (AP / Koji Sasahara) |
In brief remarks before the meeting, Abe told Putin that the hot spring waters of Nagato are famous for relieving fatigue.
"I can guarantee you that the hot springs here would fully remove fatigue from our summit talks," he said.
Putin replied, "Better not to get too tired." He also credited Abe's efforts for "a certain movement in the development of Russian-Japanese ties."
James Brown, a Japan-Russia expert at Temple University's Japan campus in Tokyo, said the meeting was "an extraordinary development. I think Prime Minister Abe is being really quite bold in announcing this new approach to relations with Russia, especially coming at such a difficult time in relations between Russia and the West."
The meeting started after 6 pm, more than two hours behind schedule, because Putin's plane landed late. Putin has a reputation for late arrivals. He kept Pope Francis waiting at the Vatican for one hour and 20 minutes in 2015. Earlier this month, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida waited for two hours when he visited the Kremlin.
Thursday's delay was because of "scheduling issues" including ones related to Syria, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, without elaborating.
Abe, who flew from Tokyo to Nagato in the morning, used the time to visit the grave of his father, Shintaro Abe. As foreign minister, the elder Abe strove for a resolution of the territorial dispute in the 1980s.
Japan says the Soviet Union took the islands illegally, expelling 17,000 Japanese to nearby Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands.
|
| This file photo taken on Aug 12, 2007 shows a Japanese high school student praying before a grave of a former Japanese islander at Kurilisk in Iturup island, the biggest of Russia's four disputed islands claimed by Japan. (AFP / Shingo Ito) |
|
| Police officers, right, stand guard in front of a hot spring villa where Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have a meeting in Nagato, western Japan, Dec 15, 2016. Putin will visit Japan Thursday to discuss territorial dispute that has prevented a peace treaty to end World War II, and Japanese investment in eastern Russia. (AP / Koji Sasahara) |
