Medvedev says he plans to visit disputed islands off Hokkaido soon+

MOSCOW, Sept. 29 Kyodo - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that he will soon visit Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, the RIA Novosti news agency and other Russian reports said, a move that would make him the first Russian leader to visit the disputed territories.

But he stopped short of saying that he will visit the islands off Hokkaido,
called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia,
during his ongoing visit to the Russian Far East.
Speaking in an interview in Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said
he has warned the Russian ambassador there that Medvedev's visit to the
islands, if realized, would seriously hurt bilateral ties.
A visit to the disputed territories by a Russian leader would serve as a strong
notice to Japan, which maintains that Russia is illegally occupying the islands
and demands their return.
If the visit indeed takes place, the Japanese government is expected to react
strongly, with potentially harmful consequences for bilateral talks on
resolving the dispute.
''Unfortunately, the current weather is unfavorable for flights,'' the Russian
Itar-Tass news agency quoted Medvedev as telling reporters in
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city on the Kamchatka Peninsula, on Wednesday,
implicitly revealing that he was planning to visit the islands after his trip
to China.
''But we will go there for sure soon,'' added the president, calling the
islands ''a very important region for our country,'' according to Itar-Tass.
Medvedev may visit the islands via Sakhalin on Thursday as local officials have
not been informed yet of any change in the initial itinerary of his current
tour in the Russian Far East, they said.
The bilateral row over the islands, consisting of Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan
and the Habomai islet group, has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a
post-World War II peace treaty.
==Kyodo
2010-09-29 23:01:04