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Moscow: No Immediate Solution to Russian-Japanese Territorial Dispute
There is no prompt solution to the Russian-Japanese dispute on the sovereignty over the Kuril Islands, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said in Moscow Saturday.
"It would be premature to expect a solution to the territorial problem from next week's talks in Moscow between the Russian and Japanese foreign ministers or even from the planned Russian- Japanese high-level meeting later," Losyukov told a news conference.
The Russian and Japanese sides "have so far been discussing how to approach the issue rather than how to solve it...No solution is ready so far," he noted.
He said the problem of border demarcation is a problem that could not be solved by a stroke of magic or simply as a good intention.
"Very serious matters are at stake -- sovereignty, national pride, historical memory. For this reason, to try and solve such a problem by setting a term like tomorrow, the day after, three or ten years is very difficult and counterproductive," the deputy foreign minister said.
He recalled that the 1997 Russian-Japanese summit in the south Russian city of Krasnoyarsk "made a good wish to try and solve the issue of concluding a peace treaty by the start of the new century. " "But that was a wish rather than an obligation," Losyukov added.
Meanwhile, he said that the relations between the two countries have never been at a higher level than now "in terms of understanding each other's positions, wishing to cooperate and looking for ways of solving the territorial problem."
On upcoming negotiations between the Russian and Japanese foreign ministers, he said it would be logical to confirm the resolve to continue negotiations on the conclusion of a peace treaty.
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