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Russia Denies Japanese Report on Transfer of Kuril Islands
Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday denied Japanese media reports that Russia has agreed to transfer part of the South Kuril Islands to Japan.
The remarks came after Japanese newspaper Yomiuri published in its Thursday edition an interview with Russian ambassador to Japan Alexander Panov, saying Russia had agreed to hand over to Japan part of the South Kuril Islands.
The Foreign Ministry called the report an "unscrupulous interpretation" of Panov's words, stressing Moscow "strictly follows the provisions of the March 25 Irkutsk declaration of the Russian President and Japanese Prime Minister on the further continuation of talks on the peace treaty."
Ties between Japan and Russia have been strained for years over a territorial dispute involving four tiny Russian-held islands just north of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.
The Interfax quoted Foreign Ministry sources as saying that Moscow and Tokyo have not recorded any consent to conduct any separate consultations on the terms of the transfer of the four islands.
The sources said the current situation of Russian-Japanese negotiation remains the same, and "nothing has changed" since the Irkutsk meeting, during which the two sides agreed to carry on talks on a peace agreement on the basis of documents adopted so far.
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