Strides in settling Japan-Russia island dispute key: minister
MOSCOW (AFP) — Concrete progress in negotiations with Moscow over a World War II-era territorial dispute are indispensable, Japan's foreign minister told Interfax news agency Sunday ahead of talks on the question.
"So far as talks on concluding a peace treaty are concerned ... we can see no change," said Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura.
"We hope in tomorrow's meeting our ministers ... will at least start a process of negotiating a peace treaty," he added of talks Monday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Moscow and Tokyo have been at odds for more than six decades over ownership of four Kuril islands -- which are known in Japan as the Northern Territories and lie within sight of Japan's northeastern coast.
At the end of World War II, the then-Soviet army invaded the entire archipelago, even though four of the islands had never belonged to Moscow previously.
Talks between the two foreign ministers are also expected address the July G8 summit which Japan is hosting along with North Korea's nuclear program.
