Japan PM Shinzo Abe promises Russia’s Putin no US troops on disputed islands

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, eager to resolve a row that has haunted ties with Moscow since the second world war, has told Russian President Vladimir Putin the United States would not put troops on disputed islands if they are handed over to Japan, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Seeking to cement his diplomatic legacy and improve ties with Russia to counter a rising China, Abe has pledged to settle the dispute over four isles in the Western Pacific that were occupied by Soviet troops toward the end of the war.

They are known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia.

Any agreement involving transfer of sovereignty to Japan would have to address whether the US-Japan security treaty, the core of Japan’s diplomacy, would apply, including whether Washington would have the right to put military bases on the islands.

The isles have strategic value for Russia, ensuring naval access to the western Pacific.

The two leaders agreed in talks in Singapore on Wednesday to speed up talks based on a 1956 joint declaration in which the Soviet Union agreed it would hand over two smaller islands after a peace treaty formally ending the war had been concluded.