Japanese PM Wants Peace Treaty With Russia After Islands Row Solved

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 08, 2002

Japanese PM Wants Peace Treaty With Russia After Islands Row Solved

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Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that a Japan-Russia peace treaty can only be signed after a decades-old bilateral row over the control of four islands off northeastern Hokkaido is resolved, Kyodo News reported.

"Japan's policy of making clear that the four islands belong to Japan and then concluding a peace treaty remains unchanged," Koizumi said while speaking at a government-sponsored rally on the territorial dispute.

Koizumi's statement differs from views of some within the government and the ruling coalition parties that two islands should be returned first.

The four Russia-held islands, Shikotan, Kunashiri, Etorofu and the Habomai islets, were seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II. The territorial dispute has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a bilateral peace treaty.

Koizumi did not mention the "two-track" negotiating approach agreed upon in talks last Saturday between Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and her Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov.

The approach calls for talks on the return to Japan of Shikotan and the Habomais to be conducted separately but simultaneously with discussions on Kunashiri and Etorofu.

Koizumi stressed the need to "negotiate persistently" and expressed the hope to work with all Japanese to negotiate the return of the territory.

Kawaguchi, who was also at the rally, said vice-ministerial level talks on the lingering problem had been set for mid-March in Moscow.

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