Putin, Abe agree on joint RussiaJapan activities on Kuril Islands

Vladimir Putin and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have worked out a statement on the prospects of joint Russian-Japanese economic activities in the South Kuril Islands as the Russian leader arrived in Japan for what’s seen as a breakthrough visit. 


The two leaders dedicated 40 minutes from their three-hour talks in Abe’s ancestral hometown of Nagato, a mountainside resort in southwest Japan, on Thursday. The time was spent to develop an agreement on joint activities on the Kuril Islands "that would be suitable to both parties," Yury Ushakov, the Kremlin aide, told reporters. 


Putin and Abe had to discuss the issue one-on-one after Russian and Japanese experts failed to agree on the wording of the statement, he added. 


According to Ushakov, the statement on joint Russian-Japanese economic activities in the South Kuril Islands, which may concern fisheries, tourism, culture and medicine, will be published tomorrow. 


Abe told reporters the leaders -- thoroughly and frankly discussed the issues of free access to their homeland by former residents of the islands, joint economic activities between the two countries with a special economic zone on the islands, as well as the issue of a peace treaty." 


Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov later stressed that the Japanese side had no objections to working in the framework of Russian law in the Kurils

Source: NNA