Putin calls for continued dialogue on peace treaty with Japan

Moscow-Sana

Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the need to continue dialogue with Japan to conclude a peace treaty with Japan, which has been pending since the end of World War II.

Sputnik news agency quoted Putin as saying during his meeting with the directors of international news agencies during the Petersburg International Economic Forum, "We have an amendment to the constitution and we must undoubtedly take this into account... But I don't think we should stop the dialogue on the peace treaty," noting that there are a lot of sensitive issues.

Putin stressed that Moscow and Tokyo must build good-neighborly relations in the interest of the two peoples, pointing to the natural partnership that distinguishes the two countries on many issues.

For many years, relations between Russia and Japan have been dominated by the absence of a peace treaty between the two countries, as Japan considers the South Kuril islands, which are the Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup and Habomai islands, as belonging to it and insists on their return under Japanese sovereignty, but Moscow's position confirms that these islands have become part of the territory of the Soviet Union in the wake of World War II and Russia's supremacy over it is not in doubt.

Last year, Russia passed constitutional amendments that prohibit ceding any Russian territory except within the framework of border demarcation agreements.

Regarding the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, Putin stressed that the solution should not be based on the "policy of sanctions and strangulation", but on the contrary, creating conditions that guarantee the security of the DPRK.

"We are categorically opposed to the spread of weapons of mass destruction around the planet," Putin said. "Everyone knows this, including our friends in Pyongyang."

"The fact that the United States, which has been threatening Pyongyang with an unparalleled vicious policy of hostility and continuous nuclear blackmail, as a threat to our defensive deterrence approach, is a threat," Kwon Jong-gon, director general of the Department of American Affairs at the DPRK's Foreign Ministry, said in a statement last month. It is illogical and a violation of our right to self-defense.”