Moscow, Feb 8 (UNI/Sputnik) Japan is artificially whipping up hysteria around the issue of the ownership of the disputed South Kurils, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.
“Look at all our statements about the artificial escalation of hysteria, tension around the territorial issue. It seems to me that the Japanese leadership, in general, devotes all its time, which could be devoted to building normal, full-fledged, economic, financial, cultural ties with our country, all this energy, and passion to obsessing on this topic,” Zakharova told the Soloviev Live YouTube channel.
The hysteria on the issue is raised by a “certain part of the political establishment of Japan,” backed by the United States, the spokeswoman went on, citing a statement by US Ambassador in Japan Rahm Emanuel on the common stance of Washington and Tokyo regarding the South Kurils earlier this week.
According to Zakharova, the US benefits from “keeping this issue afloat” to prevent the full-scale Russian-Japanese cooperation.
On Monday, Japan celebrated the so-called “Northern Territories Day” marking the anniversary of the signing the Tokyo-Moscow treaty on trade and borders under which the four disputed islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai, known as the northern territories in Japan and South Kuril Islands in Russia, were ceded to Japan before going under USSR’s sovereignty after World War II.
On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that for the return of the islands that he intends to continue persistent talks with Russia on the issue based on all previously reached agreements. Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, for his part, stressed that Tokyo considers ownership over all four islands as the only subject for negotiations.
In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a joint declaration in which Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of transferring the Habomai and Shikotan islands to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty. The Kunashir and Iturup islands were not mentioned in the document.
