Komsomolskaya Pravda: "Destiny of the Kuril Islands Postponed till Summer"
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hopes to develop Sochi and the Russian Far East with the help of Japanese technologies.
By the start of Putin's visit to Japan, the local press reported a case of swine flu in the country. But our delegation did not panic; we had come to Japan to seek a cure for the financial crisis.
"The potential for relations with Japan has not been exhausted," explained Bank VTB head Andrei Kostin to me yesterday. "Japan has very powerful financial institutions, but they are very cautious in working with Russian banks. We have been planning to place Samurai bonds, which are subject to the regulations of the Tokyo stock exchange. It is difficult for foreigners to enter the Japanese market, but we seem to have some success."
Putin was in high demand yesterday. He participated in two important meetings, one between Russian and Japanese governors, and another with business leaders from the two countries. He said he had agreed with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso to sign an agreement on nuclear energy. Head of Rosatom (Russian Nuclear Energy State Corporation) Sergei Kiriyenko specified that supplies of low-enriched uranium would go to Japan, a storage facility would be constructed in Japan, and a nuclear fuel cycle would be developed. The project is worth billions of dollars.
Putin also mentioned many other goals, including joint space exploration.
"Japanese companies have many shares in the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects. They may well participate in completing the construction of the oil pipeline from Siberia to the Pacific. We would like to use the Japanese high-speed rail technology to modernise our Trans-Siberian Railway," he said.
Japanese business leaders nodding their heads in agreement as he spoke. The conversation turned to Sochi when Putin said that, "Russia is getting ready for the 2014 Olympics. We will welcome your participation in the construction of Olympic facilities."
It goes without saying that the Russian and Japanese prime ministers discussed the issue of the South Kuril Islands.
Japanese journalists asked Putin what his attitude was concerning the return of three and a half islands to Japan, rather than four. Some of them expressed misgivings that economic cooperation with Russia could suspend the resolution of the territorial issue.
Putin replied, "We are discussing the conclusion of a peace agreement not in order to create the conditions for economic cooperation. We are developing economic cooperation in order to create the conditions for the signing of a peace treaty. Russia is ready to discuss this issue. The Japanese Prime Minister and President Medvedev agreed to meet at the G8 summit in Italy in July. They are going to discuss the peace treaty, among other things. I think that all the alternatives for resolving the issue, including the one you mentioned, will be discussed at this meeting."
Late in the evening, the Russian Prime Minister presented his book "Learning Judo with Vladimir Putin", translated into Japanese. His Tokyo-based co-author was Olympic champion Yasuhiro Yamashita. The Japanese were touched, and made Putin an Honorary Doctor of Tokai University for his "persevering activities in promoting Russian-Japanese cooperation, and deep knowledge of Japanese culture."
Tokyo
KP file
A little history
Japan claims four islands: Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir, and Habomai. The Soviet Union incorporated them after World War II in 1945, and they have since become the "disputed territories". Japan refuses to sign a peace treaty with Russia because of them up to the present day. For Russia, the islands are of strategic and fishing importance. The South Kuril Islands define the Sea of Okhotsk as Russian waters, which nobody can enter without Russian consent. If the islands were to be handed over to Japan, the sea would be opened up.
At one time, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made the offer to divide the disputed South Kuril Islands. He suggested that the two smaller islands would go to Japan, and the two larger ones would remain in the USSR, in which case the Sea of Okhotsk would remain Russian waters. However, Japan tenaciously insists on the return of all of the South Kuril Islands.
