Japan, Russia to seek mutually acceptable solution to territorial row

MOSCOW, February 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia and Japan are still having major disagreements on the territorial problem related to the South Kurile Islands, but are ready to seek a mutually acceptable solution and to negotiate it in the calm way. The Moscow negotiations between the foreign ministries of the countries had the foresaid results on Friday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a joint press conference after the negotiations that he "told his Japanese counterpart that the incidents, which occurred on the so-called day of northern territories in Japan, marred the general climate of our relations and does not contribute to their constructive development."
"When the radical approaches towards a peace treaty with Russia are taking the upper hand in Japan that takes place from time to time,
meanwhile, the Japanese top officials share these approaches, certainly, any negotiations on this problem are futile in such conditions," Lavrov believes.
He told "Mr. Maehara that we are still inclined to work on a peace
treaty, but without preliminary unilateral historical links and historians should discuss difficult problems in our common history." "We would be interested to create a commission of historians in the way we did with several our neighboring countries," the Russian minister noted.
He also expressed interest "in all the problems in Russian-Japanese relations to be settled in a calm and friendly way." "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated repeatedly our readiness to develop the closest economic, humanitarian and any other cooperation with Japan, particularly on any Kurile island," the Russian foreign minister recalled.
The Japanese counterpart confirmed the readiness for a constructive dialogue, but noted that "the territorial problem remains unsettled in our relations." "Our positions are different on this problem," Maehara said, calling these positions "parallel" without any common points for agreement.
The position of the Japanese government is that "the northern
territories are original Japanese territories in terms of history and the view, which is recognized on the international scene."
"Under the reached agreements and the principles of lawfulness and
justice the countries should seek mutually acceptable solutions," the
Japanese foreign minister noted.
"We should negotiate this problem in the calm way. We confirmed this today," Maehara said with confidence.