Japan’s new prime minister seeks peace treaty with Russia

Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, announced on Monday that he will strive for the overall development of relations with Russia, including the signing of a peace treaty over the dispute over the Kuril Islands.
“It is necessary to put a final point in the negotiations on the northern regions (the southern part of the Kuril in Japan), without delaying them to future generations,” Suga said in his first speech to Parliament broadcast on national public television.

Suga added, “I will work hard, with the help of frank dialogue at the level of senior leaders, for the comprehensive development of relations with Russia, including the signing of a peace treaty.”

It is noteworthy that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan chose Yoshihide Suga, its leader on September 16, to succeed the former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who resigned for health reasons.

Japan is claiming the islands of Konashir, Shikotan, Iturope and Habomai, citing the Bilateral Treaty of Trade and Borders of 1855, From this standpoint, Tokyo made the return of the islands a condition for concluding a peace treaty with the Russian Federation, which was not signed after the end of World War II.

In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a joint declaration, in which Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of handing over two islands to Japan in the event of a peace treaty.

The Soviet Union hoped that the matter would be limited to this point, while Japan considered the deal only part of the solution to this issue, and did not give up its claims to all the islands. Therefore, subsequent negotiations did not lead to any results.

In 2018, the parties agreed to speed up the process of negotiating a peace treaty based on the 1956 Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration.