Abe hopes for progress in peace treaty talks with Putin

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LONDON —

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he hoped to make progress on a World War II peace treaty with Russia and a long-simmering territorial dispute in talks Friday with President Vladimir Putin.

Abe said Thursday there was great potential for unlocking better economic relations between Japan and Russia if they could find a solution to their historical differences.

He also said it would be difficult to make progress on pressing world issues like Syria, Ukraine and North Korea without constructive Russian involvement.

Abe is due to meet Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.

“Between Japan and Russia, even after 70 years and more since the end of World War II, no peace treaty has been concluded, which is highly irregular,” Abe told reporters in London during his tour of European capitals.

“This is the 13th time that I meet with President Putin in a summit. Without the two leaders talking to each other directly, we can never solve this problem.”

Tokyo-Moscow relations have been hamstrung by the row that dates back to the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the four southernmost islands in the Kuril chain, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

“We have to resolve the issue of the occupation of the Northern Territories and we must conclude the peace treaty,” Abe said.

He said Japan and Russia could “unleash the great potential” in “economic and other fields” only if they solved the “abnormal situation” through a peace treaty.

He said he wanted “frank dialogue” with Putin on these points.

Abe said that on Syria, the Islamic State jihadist group, Ukraine, North Korea and Iran, “we need Russia to be constructively engaged in order to bring solutions”.

He also said he hoped to welcome Putin to Japan in the future.

“In order to make this visit significant, we would like to study and search for a most appropriate timing for that to happen,” he said.

Abe has been visiting European capitals ahead of the Group of Seven summit he is hosting later this month.

Russia was part of the group under the wider G8 configuration but was evicted following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

 

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Putin to invite Abe to Russia for economic forum in Sept.

MOSCOW (Kyodo) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to invite Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to participate in an economic forum to be held in Vladivostok in September, his aide said Thursday.

Yuri Ushakov said Putin will issue the invitation at his meeting with Abe in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Friday, according to Russian media.

The Eastern Economic Forum is scheduled to take place in Vladivostok on Sept. 2-3, bringing together business and government representatives to discuss the economic potential of Russia's Far East and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as investment opportunities.

While noting a long-standing bilateral territorial dispute will be on the agenda of the talks, the aide said the two nations' foreign ministries will have to hold more rounds of consultations to find a mutually acceptable solution.

Ushakov said a new round of vice ministerial-level consultations will take place, possibly in June, to discuss the row over four Russian-administered, Japan-claimed islands off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido.

The spat over Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group has barred Tokyo and Moscow from signing a post-World War II peace treaty.

Abe, speaking at a press conference in London on Thursday, said he will "tenaciously" work toward a resolution of the issue as he hopes to hold a frank and candid meeting with Putin in Sochi.

 

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Abe, Putin agree to advance Japan-Russia territorial talks


SOCHI, Russia —

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Friday to seek to resolve the decades-old territorial row that has barred the two countries from signing a postwar peace treaty, renewing efforts via frequent dialogues and closer economic cooperation.

“I have a sense that we are moving toward a breakthrough in the stalled peace treaty negotiations,” Abe told reporters after his three-hour meeting with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The talks included a 30-minute session where the leaders talked one-on-one, according to a Japanese official.

“We agreed to resolve the peace treaty issue by ourselves as we seek to build a future-oriented relationship. We will proceed with the negotiations with a new approach, free of any past ideas,” Abe said, although he did not offer any specifics regarding the path ahead.

The Japanese official said the “new approach” did not mean a change in Japan’s stance to seek resolution on the ownership of the disputed islands—Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan as well as the Habomai group of islets off Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido.

The disputed islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, were seized by the Soviet Union following Japan’s surrender in August 1945.

As Japan believes only talks between the nations’ leaders can move the territorial issue forward, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavnov said Abe and Putin have discussed in their talks concrete dates for Putin’s visit to Japan.

A plan in 2014 for the Russian president to visit Japan was put off after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March that year, souring Russia’s relations with Western countries and Japan.

Abe and Putin also agreed to hold a meeting of senior officials on the territorial dispute in June, Lavrov told reporters following the Abe-Putin talks.

In the meeting, Putin invited Abe to participate in the Eastern Economic Forum to be held in Vladivostok in September, which will bring together business and government representatives to discuss the economic potential and investment opportunities of Russia’s Far East and the Asia-Pacific region.

Abe showed willingness to participate, saying the Japan-Russia cooperation in the Russian Far East is important, according to the Japanese official.

In addition to their meeting in Vladivostok, Abe said he also looks forward to a possibility of meeting Putin in July on the fringes of the Asia-Europe summit in Mongolia, as well as in September at the time of the Group of 20 summit in China and in October during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the official said.

The Japanese leader, with the hope that economic incentives will have a positive effect on the territorial talks, presented to Putin an eight-point plan to forge closer ties, including in areas such as oil and gas production, development of the Russian Far East and construction of medical centers.

The Russian Far East and Siberian regions are areas rich in energy resources which Putin has attached great importance on developing. Japan is interested in energy development with Russia as it looks to reduce its heavy dependence on oil imports from the Middle East.

Aside from the territorial issue and bilateral cooperation, Abe and Putin also exchanged views on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development programs. They agreed not to accept Pyongyang’s possessing of nuclear capabilities and to seek denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to the official.

The Abe-Putin meeting was held just weeks before Abe hosts the Group of Seven summit in central Japan at the end of May. Abe apparently wants to avoid any negative impact from his softening stance toward Russia on Japan’s relations with its G-7 peers, with whom in lockstep it imposed economic sanctions on Russia and condemned Moscow for annexing the Crimea.

U.S. President Barack Obama had also urged Abe in February not to meet with Putin under current circumstances, sources close to Japan-Russia relations said, citing differences between Moscow and Washington over the handling of the Ukrainian and Syrian issues.

The summit will bring together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States as well as of the European Union. Russia’s membership in the group was suspended in response to the annexation, which the West views as illegal.

Over the Ukrainian crisis, Abe told Putin that Japan strongly hopes all related parties of the cease-fire agreement struck in Minsk, Belarus in February 2015, including Russia, will fully implement the deal, the official said.

Abe expressed hope that Russia will rigorously exercise its influence in the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine and contribute to improving the situation.

Putin, in response, said Russia is waiting for Ukraine to implement domestic reforms in accordance with the Minsk agreement, the official said.

Abe also requested Russia’s further constructive involvement in the Syrian crisis, welcoming Moscow’s cooperation with Washington in seeking a cease-fire in the Middle Eastern country, according to the official.

Abe’s visit to Sochi was the last leg of his seven-day tour which began Sunday and also included stops in Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Britain for talks with their leaders.