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Japan's Kono to Visit Russia; Treaty Hopes Faint
Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said on Tuesday he would visit Moscow next month in a tacit recognition that the World War Two foes would not be able to achieve their goal of signing a peace treaty within the year.
Kono said he planned to visit Moscow on January 16-17 for talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov aimed at resolving a decades-old territorial dispute and paving the way for a visit to Russia by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and then-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto vowed in 1997 to work towards clinching a peace treaty by the end of 2000, but little progress has been made. The dispute over four tiny Russian-held islands that Japan wants back has blocked the signing of a treaty for more than half a century.
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