Japan, Russia to schedule talks between Abe, Putin, impasse on territorial dispute remains

Japan and Russia on Friday agreed to schedule a date for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in a move Tokyo hopes will help improve bilateral ties with Moscow and see both sides move closer towards settling a long-held territorial dispute.

"We will compile a solution acceptable to both sides. We held a positive debate that will give a boost to the negotiations going forward," Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told a press briefing following talks with his Russian equivalent Sergey Lavrov.

Officials here have said that Abe will almost certainly visit Sochi in Russia, located on the Black Sea and host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, early next month, for talks with Putin, with hopes that Putin will pay a return visit to Japan thereafter.

Following Abe's upcoming meeting with Putin, Kishida and Lavrov agreed that additional senior officials' meetings will be held to further discuss the territorial dispute between both nations, although fundamental difference on the issue still remain.

While showing signs of thawing to some extend following the latest ministers' meeting, bilateral ties between Tokyo and Moscow became increasingly strained following Japan slapping new sanctions against Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and the crisis in eastern Ukraine, alongside steps taken by the U.S. and the European Union.

The move in 2014 saw diplomatic ties frayed between both countries and a planned trip to Japan by Putin postponed. But in October 2015 high-level talks resumed between Tokyo and Moscow, particularly related to the ongoing territorial spat.

Abe, however, has remained eager to resolve the dispute with Russia, stating that the two sides would be able to "unlock the untapped potential" of the Japan-Russia relationship, if the decades-old spat were resolved.

The issue in part stems from a 1956 joint declaration which was made between Japan and the then Soviet Union in which the Russians agreed to return two of four islands located north of Hokkaido, which are believed by Japan to be a part of the Nemuro Sub-prefecture of Hokkaido and are referred to by Japan as the Northern Territories.

Russia, however, maintains that the same islands that they refer to as the Southern Kurils are their territory, with Russian leaders repeatedly referring to the islands as a "strategic region" of Russia, with the island currently being administered by Russia, yet claimed by Japan.

The 2001 Irkutsk Statement, which confirms that the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration is a basic legal document, is viewed by many experts on the issue as the foundation upon which a peace treaty between the two nations could be built.

Russia believes, however, that its sovereignty over the islands was recognized long before treaties were signed in the 1950s, while Japan maintains Russia has been illegally occupying the islands since the end of WWII.

The territorial dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a post-war peace treaty as Japan says the islands are an inherent part of its territory and vice versa.

Abe has said he wants talks on the issue to be accelerated to "get the Northern Territories back and sign a peace treaty," but Russia, as reiterated by Lavrov during his visit here, has suggested that inking a peace treaty and the territorial issue may not be inextricably linked, and has called for Japan to recognize historical facts. Endit