Thursday, September 30, 2010
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (AFP) - – President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday said the Kuril Islands were an important part of Russia and he planned a visit, sparking concern in Japan which claims part of the Pacific archipelago.
Medvedev said he had been hoping to visit the islands -- the southernmost four of which are claimed by Japan -- on his current trip to the Far East region but the plan had been thwarted by bad weather.
"This is a very important region of our country," Medvedev told reporters in the main city of Russia's volcanic Kamchatka peninsula just north of the contested islands.
He said the weather around the islands -- which are often blighted by fog -- was not suitable for flying at the moment.
"But we will do it, we will definitely go there in the nearest future," he said, without specifying which of the islands in the Kuril chain he would visit.
The archipelago of some 56 islands cascades down from the tip of the Kamchatka peninsula towards Japan's Hokkaido island.
The status of the southernmost four seized by Soviet troops from Japan in 1945 is a major problem in Moscow-Tokyo relations.
Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara warned Wednesday that a presidential visit to the islands would "severely hurt ties", the Kyodo News agency reported.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, the top government spokesman, said at a regular press conference: "We have communicated our country's stance to the Russian side through various channels."
Asked if Japan wanted Medvedev to stay away from the islands, he said: "To sum it up, that's correct."
With tensions rising, Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian lower house of parliament's foreign affairs committee, described the comments by the Japanese foreign minister as "harsh and inadequate".
"The Kuril Islands are an integral part of Russia and discussions about them can only be acceptable if this thesis is accepted as the starting point," he told the Interfax news agency.
"The president of the country and other citizens have every reason to go to these islands without any kind of agreement, including from Japan."
Japan does not contest Russia's sovereignty over the rest of the Kurils, all of which it held at one time or another, but has repeatedly demanded the return of the four southernmost islands.
Called in Russian as Iturup, Shikotan, Habomai and Kunashir, they are still collectively known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
Russian and Japanese officials have repeatedly expressed frustration that the dispute has prevented relations reaching their full potential but summit meetings over the last years have failed to make any progress in the dispute.
The row has also prevented Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II.
Medvedev's comments, his strongest on the dispute since coming to power on 2008, indicate that Russia is in no mood to give ground on the disputed territories.
"An unexpected visit would undoubtedly make the negotiations with Japan more difficult," said Valery Kistanov, director of the Japan Centre at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Such a historic visit would show that Russia's position is firm and it will not make concessions," he told AFP.
According to the website of Russia's Far East Sakhalin region, the southernmost islands have a population of 10,000 people with fishing one of the main local industries.
Japan has also been sparring with China for the past three weeks in another territorial row, centred on islands located between Japan's Okinawa island and Taiwan which are called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
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