Lavrov Talks Tough At Meeting With Japan On Disputed Islands
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono enter a hall for their talks in Moscow on January 14.
Moscow has warned Tokyo not to expect progress toward an agreement over the disputed Kurile Islands unless Japan first recognizes Russian sovereignty over the Pacific island chain claimed by both countries since World War II.
Meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Moscow on January 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the countries still had "substantial disagreements" despite some progress in bringing their positions closer.
The Soviet Union seized the four islands north of Hokkaido at the end of the war, and the dispute has prevented the countries form signing a peace treaty to formally end the hostilities. Japan calls the islands the Northern Territories.
Lavrov's talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Tara Kono came ahead of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Foreign Minister Shinzo Abe, which the Kremlin said will be held on January 22 in Moscow.
Putin and Abe agreed in November to accelerate negotiations based on a 1956 Soviet proposal to return the two less populated islands, Shikotan and a group of islets called Habomai.
But Lavrov set a tough tone in remarks both before and after the meeting with Kono, criticizing recent statements by Japanese officials and saying that Tokyo must not try to force an agreement.
The Kurile Islands: Why Russia And Japan Never Made Peace After World War II
1/16A young dog sidesteps a Reuters photographer on Kunashir Island, one of four islands that Russia has settled but Japan calls its Northern Territories. Kunashir lies just 20 kilometers from the Japanese mainland.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
2/16A Russian woman touches up her lipstick on Kunashir. The dispute over the islands means a peace treaty has never been signed between Russia and Japan to formally end World War II hostilities. As one local woman put it, "There is no war, but there is no peace either."
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
3/16The Kurile Islands (center) lie like a trail of droplets between Japan and Russia. Historically the boundary between the two countries has been tugged up and down the island chain, but after World War II that boundary slid south, hard against the Japanese mainland.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
4/16In the waning days of World War II, the United States and United Kingdom promised Moscow the Kurile Islands in return for entering the fight against Japan. This Soviet-era painting depicts the landing of Soviet forces on one of the islands.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
5/16The remains of a Soviet soldier killed during the operation to seize the Kurile Islands in 1945. Japan claims the four islands closest to the Japanese mainland are not part of the Kurile chain and the U.S.S.R. therefore had no right to capture them.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
6/16A Japanese gravestone on Kunashir Island. Once captured in 1945, there was a period of uneasy cohabitation (which is the subject of a 2014 animated film) before Josef Stalin ordered the forceful eviction of the Japanese population to mainland Japan in 1947.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
7/16Winter on Kunashir in 1998. Today, around 19,000 Russians populate the disputed Kurile Islands.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
8/16Dusk in the harbor on Kunashir Island. Fishing is the main source of income for the Russians here, but infrastructure is ragged and economic prospects for locals are generally bleak. A Japanese man who was evicted in 1947 described his former homeland as "a wasteland" when he visited in 2005.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
9/16A Soviet soldier on Kunashir Island in 1989. Shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed, Kurile islanders heId a mock referendum on asking Japan to take ownership of the islands. A Russian official on the islands seethed at the memory, "Most of these people are nobody, nothing."
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
10/16Seals swimming off Kunashir Island. Waters around the disputed islands teem with sea life worth an estimated $4 billion per year in potential fisheries value. Japanese authorities have vowed to carefully exploit the fishing and tourism potential of the Kuriles if Russia returns the four islands.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
11/16Russian fishermen at a rally defending Russia's possession of the Kuriles in the early '90s. A 2016 poll showed 78 percent of Russian mainlanders were opposed to returning the disputed islands to Japan.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
12/16A Japanese tank rusting on one of the Kurile Islands. After losing more than 20 million Soviet citizens in World War II, the idea of returning land to an ally of Nazi Germany is unthinkable to most Russians. One politician made Russia's position clear in a 2002 statement: "[Japan] must remember they lost the war and signed an unconditional surrender; they put themselves politically and territorially at the winners' mercy."
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
13/16A nuclear submarine near the Kurile Island chain in 1998. Another factor wedding Russia to the islands is current military strategy. Deepwater channels between the Kuriles allow Russian submarines a stealthy corridor to the Pacific Ocean.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
14/16Russian fishing boats on Shikotan, one of the smaller disputed islands. With the prospect of the United States establishing a military outpost on the Kuriles if returned to Japan, Russia is unlikely ever to agree to a handover of all the disputed islands. But one possibility could end the dispute in what Russian President Vladimir Putin has called a "hikiwake" (the term for "draw" in judo).
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
15/16The most palatable solution for both sides might be what has been dubbed "two islands plus alpha," in which Japan would receive the Shikotan (pictured) and Habomai islands (and their fishing grounds), plus one more yet-to-be-defined concession from Russia. In return, Japan would renounce claims to the two larger, militarized islands, Kunashir and Etorofu.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
16/16Japanese former residents visiting relatives' graves on Kunashir island. Analysts suggest that "alpha" might include fishing rights for Japan near the two larger islands or the rights for Japanese citizens to visit and do business on the disputed islands. If Russia and Japan can find an "alpha" that is acceptable to both sides, a peace treaty can be signed and World War II might finally, formally end for these two nations.
For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands. (A version of this gallery was originally published in April 2017.)
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"Today we confirmed our readiness to work on the basis of the 1956 declaration, which means above all the immutability -- as the very first step -- of recognition by our Japanese neighbors of the outcome of the Second World War," Lavrov said.
That includes "the sovereignty of the Russian Federation over all the islands of the Southern Kuriles," Lavrov said. "This is our fundamental position, and without a step in this direction it is very hard to count on any movement forward on other issues."
"Russia's sovereignty over the islands is not subject to discussion. They are part of the territory of the Russian Federation," Lavrov told reporters. He said the UN Charter supports Moscow's ownership of the islands.
Recognition of the outcome of the war, and of Russian sovereignty over the islands, could potentially rule out any further dispute or claims by Tokyo on the two larger and more populated islands, Iturup and Kunashir.
Abe, who has been prime minister since 2012 and also held the post earlier, has met repeatedly with Putin and voiced hope of ending the dispute while gaining control over at least some of the four islands.
Moscow has often suggested that increased Japanese investment and trade would help create favorable conditions for a deal, but Lavrov said business cooperation on the islands was being implemented "on a very modest, unimpressive scale."
Speaking at the start of the talks, Kono seemed to try to turn the tables on Russia on that score, saying that the two countries need to solve the territorial problem to set the stage for expanding economic and other ties.
Following upbeat statements by Japanese officials in recent weeks, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Japanese ambassador on January 9 to warn Tokyo not to "artificially incite the atmosphere regarding the peace treaty problem and [not to] try to enforce its own scenario of settling the issue."
Lavrov was similarly stern as he sat down for the talks with Kono, saying that "once again, I would like to ask our Japanese colleagues to strictly follow agreements by our leaders, both regarding the format of talks and, naturally, the substance of work on a peace treaty."
After the talks, Lavrov dismissed as "unacceptable" what he said was a recent statement by Abe that "Russian citizens will be able to remain on the islands after [they] come under Japanese sovereignty."
Lavrov also said that a statement by an aide to Abe suggesting that resolving the dispute would help Japan and the United States deter China was "outrageous," and claimed it raised questions about the independence of Japanese foreign policy.
"We wondered whether Japan could be independent given such reliance on the U.S., and we were told that Japan would act proceeding from its national interests," Lavrov said. "We would like to hope it will indeed be so."
He also said that Russia is concerned about the U.S. military presence in the region, including the deployment of U.S. missile-defense components which he said create security risks for Russia and China.
With reporting by AP, Reuters, RIA Novosti, TASS, and Interfax
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![A Japanese tank rusting on one of the Kurile Islands. After losing more than 20 million Soviet citizens in World War II, the idea of returning land to an ally of Nazi Germany is unthinkable to most Russians. One politician made Russia's position clear in a 2002 statement: "[Japan] must remember they lost the war and signed an unconditional surrender; they put themselves politically and territorially at the winners' mercy."](https://gdb.rferl.org/56d865c3-5779-4a95-93c3-699b3b2328cf_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
