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Putin, Mori Fail to Make Breakthrough in Territorial Row
Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori failed to make substantive progress on concluding a peace treaty after ending their summit in Tokyo Tuesday.
The two leaders, in a statement issued shortly after their third round of talks Tuesday morning, confirmed negotiations on the treaty will continue.
Putin and Mori "agreed to continue negotiations on concluding a peace treaty while resolving" a territorial dispute blocking the pact, the statement said.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Putin said that a 1997 agreement committing the two countries to strive to sign a peace treaty by the end of this year is only a target, and not a promise.
"The important thing is not the deadline" but each other's goodwill, Putin said.
The statement says the two leaders will continue talks on the treaty based on previous agreements, including those in 1993 and 1998 committing them to solve the territorial row on the basis of historical and legal facts, and accelerate peace treaty negotiations.
The statement also calls for new guidelines for accelerating work by a joint committee on the peace treaty headed by the two countries' foreign ministers, and a joint working-level panel on the treaty.
The decades-old territorial dispute has prevented Japan and Russia, which established diplomatic ties in 1956, from signing a peace treaty.
The two countries remain far apart over a string of Russian-held islands off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido.
Japan has called for the return of the islands, which were seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II, but Russia has rejected the calls.
After Tuesday's talks, Mori and Putin also issued 15 other documents on bilateral cooperation, including a new program for boosting economic ties.
Putin, who is in Japan on a three-day official visit, will leave Tokyo later in the day.
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