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No high expectations for immediate progress on Russia-Japan peace treaty: Russian FM

Xinhua, December 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

There should be no high expectations for any immediate progress on the signing of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, as they still have difficulties in ironing out their differences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday.

Lavrov made the remarks after meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, who is here to prepare for Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan on Dec. 15.

"We have touched upon in detail the peace treaty issue...It is not easy to bring together our stances, and the issue is difficult," Lavrov told reporters.

But he promised to continue with the work on it, saying Moscow is interested in solving the issue.

As what has been agreed on during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Russia's Sochi in May and his meeting with Putin at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia's Vladivostok in September, Lavrov reiterated that Moscow and Tokyo would try to create a favorable situation to resolve the issue by promoting cooperation in all possible areas.

Kishida said on Saturday the territorial dispute should be solved on a mutually agreeable basis.

Russia and Japan have not signed a peace treaty formalizing the end of World War II due to a territory row over four small islands in the Pacific -- the Southern Kurils, as Russia calls them, and what the Japanese call the Northern Territories.

The long held territorial spats are considered to be the main stumbling block and tipping point for their bilateral ties, in addition to Tokyo's sanctions against Moscow following its Western allies over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.

Russia claims sovereignty over the four islands, which have great economic and military significance. Moscow has been urging Tokyo to discuss the issue within the context of World War II, while Japan maintains that Russia illegally occupied those islands.

According to the Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, Russia agreed to return two of the four islands after a bilateral peace treaty was signed, while Japan refused to sign such an agreement, insisting on the return of all four islands. Endi