China for the first time in almost 60 years changed On Monday, April 3, the Japanese agency Kyodo Citing sources close to Beijing.
In 1964, former Chinese President Mao Zedong expressed support for Japan on the Kurils, and China has not discussed the issue since.
China’s incumbent President Xi Jinping said in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that China “will not take either side’s position” on this issue.
Kyodo predicts that the change in China’s stance will “further complicate the negotiations and strengthen Russia’s confidence” on a peace deal.
According to the publication, the Russian Federation also invited the Chinese side to consider the possibility of investing in the Kuril Islands, as they have the status of a regional Special Economic Zone.
after starting Special operations in Ukraine Japan has implemented various packages of sanctions against the Russian Federation.
In this regard, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Moscow has terminated the negotiations for a peace treaty with Tokyo.
It was also decided to stop visa-free travel for Japanese citizens. Russia also announced that it is withdrawing from the dialogue with Japan on the establishment of joint economic activities in the South Kuril Islands.
As a reminder, in October 2022, to comment The Governor of the Sakhalin Region, Valery Limarenko, who decided to recognize the Southern Kurils as “the territory of Japan occupied by Russia” by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that any call to violate the integrity of the state is unacceptable.
Japan in May 2021 unclassified and published documents on the South Kuril question. It follows from them that in the early 1970s Moscow proposed to resolve the issue by transferring the two islands to Tokyo. A peace treaty was drafted. One of the conditions was the mutual renunciation of territorial claims in the future. However, the Japanese refused to sign the document, demanding the transfer of all disputed islands.
regional problem
After the Second World War, the Kuril Islands became part of Russia’s Sakhalin Oblast. Ownership of the archipelago’s southern islands – Iturup, Kunashir and the islands on the Little Kuril ridge – is disputed by Japan, which refers to them as the Hokkaido prefecture and calls them “northern regions”.
After the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the Russian Empire ceded the southern part of Sakhalin, as well as the Liaodong Peninsula (with the ports of Port Arthur and Dalniy) to Japan.
On August 8, 1945, the USSR declared war on Japan, and on August 9, hostilities began. At the beginning of September 1945, Soviet troops completely occupied the Kuril Islands.
On February 2, 1946, the formation of the South Sakhalin Territory on the territory of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR was followed by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a Joint Declaration stating that “the state of war between the USSR and Japan has ended from the day this Declaration came into force and that peace and good neighborly relations have been restored between them”.
In this document, Moscow agreed to transfer Habomai and Shikotan to the Japanese side after a peace treaty was signed.
However, in the declaration the issue of the transfer of the Lesser Kuril Ridge is expressed in general terms – it is not clear what it is about: either the transfer of the islands to Japan on a long-term lease for economic activity, or the transfer of sovereignty over the islands from one country to another.
Later, Tokyo refused to sign a peace treaty as it appeared that Japan had renounced its claims on Iturup and Kunashir. The agreement has not been signed yet.