Japan’s ‘anti-Russian course’ makes a WWII peace treaty ‘impossible’, Moscow says

Russia and Japan haven’t formally ended WWII hostilities because of a stand-off over the Kuril Islands, which Tokyo claims as its Northern Territories

Tokyo’s ‘openly unfriendly positions’ and ‘direct threats’ made signing a treaty unthinkable, Moscow’s deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday

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Russian missile launchers move into position on Matua Island, part of the Kurils Islands chain, in 2021. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service Handout via AP

Published: 2:02pm, 3 Jan 2023Updated: 2:58pm, 3 Jan 2023

Japan’s “anti-Russian course” makes peace treaty talks impossible, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in comments published by the state TASS news agency on Tuesday.

Russia and Japan have not formally ended World War Two hostilities because of their stand-off over islands – seized by the Soviet Union at the end of the war – just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.

The islands are known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories.

A Russian military vehicle that forms part of a coastal missile system is seen last month in Paramushir, one of the Kuril Islands that Japan claims as its Northern Territories. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Handout via Reuters

“It is absolutely obvious that it is impossible to discuss the signing of such a document [a peace treaty] with a state that takes openly unfriendly positions and allows itself direct threats against our country,” Rudenko told TASS in an interview.

“We are not seeing signs of Tokyo moving away from the anti-Russian course and any attempt to rectify the situation.”

Russia withdrew from its talks with Japan in March last year, following Japanese sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Japan reacted angrily, calling Moscow’s move “unfair” and “completely unacceptable”.

Separately, Rudenko also said that Russia supports the one-China policy on the issue of Taiwan, reiterating Moscow’s explicit backing of Beijing.