Russia interested in peace treaty with Japan on basis of 1956 Declaration - Putin

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. Russia has confirmed interest in signing a peace treaty with Japan on the basis of the 1956 Declaration, President Vladimir Putin said after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday. "Naturally, we discussed the outlook for concluding a peace treaty," Putin said. "We reaffirmed our interest in signing this document." "At the meeting in Singapore (in November 2018) we agreed to proceed with the negotiating process on the basis of the joint declaration the Soviet Union and Japan signed in 1956, which above all envisages the conclusion of a peace treaty," Putin recalled. He remarked that at Tuesday’s meeting the two sides "spent much time" on the issue of the peace treaty. The two countries’ foreign ministers were commissioned to coordinate this work. The first round of negotiations, he said, was held in Moscow on January 14. The results of the negotiations in the Kremlin were reported to the Russian and Japanese leaders. "Let me point out that painstaking work is ahead for us to create conditions for achieving mutually acceptable solutions," Putin said. "The task is to ensure long-term and all-round development of Russian-Japanese relations at the proper level." He pointed out that a future solution the negotiators were yet to propose "should be acceptable to the people of Russia and Japan and supported by the public at large in both countries." For the time being the parties agreed to step up joint economic activity on the South Kuril islands in the five authorized spheres: aquaculture, greenhouse farming, wind energy, tourism and garbage processing. In conclusion Putin thanked Abe and all other participants in the negotiations for what he described as "useful and meaningful exchange of opinion." "I believe that this visit will certainly benefit bilateral relations and take us closer to resolving the key issues of our cooperation," he said. Read more