Japan PM rejects opposition claims about increased Moscow pressure.

8/10 Tass 101

TOKYO, October 8 (Itar-Tass) - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on
Friday rejected the opposition's allegations that Russia in cooperation
with China is currently intensifying pressure on Tokyo in the territorial
issue. He answered an inquiry of a lawmaker at a plenary meeting of the
upper house of parliament. The lawmaker, in particular, said that Beijing
has recently taken a tougher stance than earlier in the dispute regarding
the ownership of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands in the East China Sea that
are controlled by Japan. Speculations appeared in Tokyo in this connection
on the issue of the simultaneous toughening of Moscow's approach to the
negotiations on the South Kurils.
"I don't think that Russia in coordination with China is toughening
its position on the problem of the Northern Territories," the Japanese
prime minister said in parliament on Friday. He also evaded answering to
questions about the reaction to the RF president's possible trip to the
South Kurils. "We proceed form the assumption that at the current stage no
specific plans of the visit have been made public," the prime minister
noted.
"In any case," he said, "I will exert every effort to hold insistent
talks at the summit level with Russia, setting the course for the final
settlement of the issue of ownership of the four northern islands and
signing of a peace treaty."
On September 29, during his visit to the Russian Far East RF President
Dmitry Medvedev announced his intention to visit the South Kurils. "It is
a very important region of our country," he said. "We will certainly go
there in the short run." Until now Russian top executives have never
visited the Kurils.
Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara stated on September 29 that
the possible trip of the RF president to these territories would seriously
hurt the bilateral ties. The next day Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Andrei Nesterenko rejected as unacceptable the advice to the Russian
leadership regarding the route of its trips in the Russian territory.
Following this, the Japanese leadership noticeably softened the tone of
their statements on the South Kurils.
Nesterenko said: "The Russian president decides himself where he goes
or not. Any advice is unacceptable and inadmissible," the diplomat
stressed. Nesterenko noted that Moscow "notes that Japanese top officials
have exposed Tokyo's position on the South Kuril Islands under which the
islands would belong to Japan." "Thus, we believe it necessary to recall
that the islands are Russia's territory in compliance with the norms of
international law and the UN Charter," the diplomat pointed out. "We are
convinced that for the benefit of the onward development of
Russian-Japanese relations it is necessary to avoid counter-productive
deadlocks, take active steps towards expanding cooperation, strengthen
interaction in global affairs, and calmly continue the dialogue on
mutually acceptable decisions to sign a peace treaty with the following
border delimitation," Nesterenko pointed out.
Russia maintains that all the Kuril Islands, including those that
Japan calls the Northern Territories, are legally a part of Russia as a
result of World War II, and that this acquisition was as proper as any
other change of international boundaries following the war.
-0-ezh