FM: Moscow has no territorial dispute with Tokyo

Russia does not see any territorial dispute with Japan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. "We don't see that situation as some territorial dispute," Lavrov said in response to a question of a Japanese reporter during a press conference following his talks with visiting Estonian counterpart Urmas Paet. According to the Russian diplomat, Russia relies on reality and existing documents, including the results of WWII embedded in the UN Charter. "Let's base on that reality while discussing the ways to solve that problem," he said. Lavrov reminded that Moscow and Tokyo have agreed to continue work to settle the border issues so the solution would satisfy both sides. Late January, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama and his Russian counterpart, Igor Morgulov, met in Tokyo to discuss territorial issues and bilateral economic cooperation. Japan and Russia are at odds over a group of islands off Japan's Hokkaido, known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. The issue of disputed territories prevents the two countries from reaching a peace treaty since the end of WWII. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 8 in Sochi after attending the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics. Abe said that he "was able to share (with Putin) an awareness of having to end the abnormal situation in which no peace treaty has been signed" between the two countries following the war. According to Japan's Kyodo News, the two leaders are scheduled to meet again in June, when Russia will host a Group of Eight summit in Sochi.