'Not partners': Abe, Putin on collision course over islands

Simmering tensions have ramped up in recent weeks, with Russia angrily accusing Japan of whipping up a febrile atmosphere ahead of the summit and failing to accept it lost the second world war.

Setting the tone for the talks, Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov admitted the meeting would “not be easy.”

Soviet troops claimed the four islands in the closing days of the war and a dispute over their sovereignty prevented the two countries signing a peace treaty – a situation both countries have vowed to rectify.

The islands, off the northern coast of Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, are known as the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.