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Putin meets Abe’s widow, reflects on ex-PM’s ‘dream’ to strike Russia-Japan peace treaty
‘Your husband did a great deal for the development of Russian-Japanese relations,’ the Kremlin chief told Akie Abe
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Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to former prime minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, saying he knew the slain Japanese leader had dreamed of finally concluding a post-second world war peace treaty.
No treaty was ever signed as the two countries could not resolve a dispute over the then-Soviet Union’s seizure at the end of the war of four islands in the Southern Kuril chain, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
Russian media said Abe and Putin met altogether 27 times during the nearly nine years the Japanese leader was in office. Abe left office in 2020 and was assassinated two years later while making an election campaign speech.
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“I know that his dream – and he truly strived to achieve this – was to conclude a peace treaty between our two countries. The situation is different now,” the Russian leader said.
Putin, whose comments to Abe’s widow in the Kremlin were reported by Russian news agencies, also said fulfilling that dream was not possible in the current international situation given the conflict in Ukraine.
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“Your husband did a great deal for the development of Russian-Japanese relations. We had very good personal relations,” Putin was quoted as telling Akie Abe.
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