RF ambassador expresses regret over Tokyo stance on S Kurils

TOKYO, May 16 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Bely
met here on Monday with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, who
expressed regret over RF Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov's trip with a
group of ministers to the Southern Kuriles on Sunday.
"Our side has expressed Russia's approach to this issue," Mikhail Bely
told Itar-Tass. "We expressed regret over the fact that the Japanese side
casts doubt on our sovereign right to travel to these islands. Attention
was drawn to the fact that this trip is related to the implementation of
the region's socio-economic development programme and was aimed at
monitoring its implementation."
Sergei Ivanov was accompanied during his trip to the Southern Kuril
Islands -Iturup and Kunashir - by Transport Minister Igor Levitin,
Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, Natural Resources
Minister Yuri Trutnev, Minister of Regional Development Viktor Basargin,
Sakhalin region's Governor Alexander Khoroshavin.
The government of Japan has sharply reacted to the visit of Russian
senior officials to the Southern Kuriles. It argues that it worsens the
situation in the negotiations on the fate of the islands, which Tokyo
considers its northern territories.
The Kuril Islands dispute, also known as the Northern Territories
dispute, has been over sovereignty over the South Kuril Islands. The
disputed islands, which were occupied by Soviet forces during the
Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation at the end of World War II, are
under Russian administration as South Kuril District of the Sakhalin
Oblast, but are claimed by Japan, which refers to them as the Northern
Territories or Southern Chishima, being part of the Nemuro Subprefecture
of Hokkaido Prefecture.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan
from 1951 states that Japan must give up all claims to the Kuril islands,
but it also does not recognise the Soviet Union's sovereignty over the
Kuril Islands. Furthermore, Japan currently claims that at least some of
the disputed islands are not a part of the Kuril Islands, and thus are not
covered by the treaty. Russia maintains that the Soviet Union's
sovereignty over the islands was recognised following agreements at the
end of the Second World War. However, Japan has disputed this claim. The
disputed islands are: Iturup (Etorofu) Island, Kunashir (Kunashiri)
Island, Shikotan Island and Habomai rocks.