Medvedev forgoes visit to disputed islands, heading to Moscow+

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept. 30 Kyodo -
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has forgone a planned visit to islands
subject to a territorial dispute with Japan, having already left the Kamchatka
region for Moscow, an aide to a senior official in the Russian Far East said
Thursday.
Medvedev is reported to have said during his visit to the Russian Far East on
Wednesday that he would soon visit the Russian-held islands off Japan's
Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in
Russia.
Medvedev's remarks were taken by many as meaning that although he will not go
to the disputed territories during the latest trip due to foul weather he is
determined to go there the next chance he gets.
The president is expected to go to Northeast Asia in mid-November to attend an
annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in
Yokohama.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Thursday that Moscow
considers Tokyo's warning against the presidential trip to the islands
unacceptable.
''The Russian president decides himself where he goes or not. Any advice from
outside is unacceptable and inadmissible,'' Itar-Tass News Agency quoted him as
saying.
Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara had warned that a visit by Medvedev to
the islands would seriously hurt bilateral ties. The president would have been
the first Russian leader to visit any of the islands.
In Tokyo, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Yutaka Banno said at a press
conference the Japanese government understands that Medvedev on Wednesday did
not refer to a specific plan to visit the disputed territories. He added Tokyo
will continue to convey to Moscow its concerns over the president's possible
trip to those areas.
An official of the Sakhalin government, which effectively administers the
islands -- Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group -- said
Thursday that it is not making preparations for a presidential visit to the
region.
Although the weather was fine on the disputed islands on Thursday morning, an
official on Kunashiri said preparations for the visit were called off, adding
that many of the officials involved have also left the island.
The row over the territories, which were seized by the Soviet Union at the end
of World War II, has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a postwar peace
treaty.
==Kyodo
2010-09-30 23:44:52