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Russian defense chief visits isles claimed by Japan

04 February 2011 18:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Japan’s foreign minister Friday denounced a visit by Russia’s defense chief to islands at the center of a territorial row and accused the Kremlin of scuttling efforts to improve ties before his visit to Moscow next week, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Japan summoned the Russian ambassador and issued a protest over Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov’s visit to Russian garrisons on the islands of Kunashir and Iturup, known as Kunashiri and Etorofu in Japan.
A ministry spokesman in Moscow said he also made a helicopter trip over Shikotan.
It was the latest in a string of visits by Russian officials since November when President Dmitry Medvedev made the first trip by a Russian leader to the islands, known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.
"At a time when I am trying to develop Japan-Russia ties, including resolving the territorial issue, such visits do not follow the agreement between the two countries’ leaders and pours cold water on matters," Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara told a news conference.
Soviet troops occupied the four islands off Japan’s Hokkaido in 1945. Soviet leader Josef Stalin felt he had U.S. and British approval to take them in return for entering World War Two against Japan.
They have remained in Moscow’s hands since and have been a persistent irritant in Russia-Japan relations, preventing the two countries from signing a peace treaty for 65 years.
Moscow has pointedly asserted sovereignty over the small, windswept islands off Russia’s Pacific Coast with the visits by Medvedev and two senior government officials in recent months.
MAEHARA’S VISIT
Medvedev told his Security Council Friday that visits by Russian officials were motivated purely by domestic concerns.
"All of these visits are linked with a single thing: we must pay attention to the development of the Kurile territories," he said on state television.
"This is Russian territory that should be developed ... just like any other Russian territory," Medvedev said.
He said Russia would "continue to discuss all aspects of Russian-Japanese relations -- including the issue of a peace treaty -- in order to develop these relations in the spirit of interaction and mutual understanding."
Maehara and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed last November to work to improve ties, shortly after Medvedev’s island visit, but Russia also urged Japan to focus more on economic ties than on the islands.
Maehara is due to visit Moscow at the end of next week.
Kan described the Russian minister’s visit to the islands as "very regrettable."
Medvedev, who met Kan in November at an Asian summit, invited the Japanese premier to visit Russia this year and Kan tentatively accepted the invitation.
Kan’s declining standing in opinion polls has been blamed in party on the dispute with Russia and what were seen as concessions made to China in another territorial dispute.