“This situation is the result of Russian aggression in Ukraine,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told parliament in Tokyo.
“The (Russian) attempt to shift this issue to Japan-Russia relations is totally unjustified and totally unacceptable,” he added.
Kishida stressed that Japan “strongly protests” Moscow’s decision, reiterating his country’s condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine that “change the status quo by force and unilaterally.”
In recent weeks, Japan has joined Western countries in imposing severe economic sanctions on Moscow over its military offensive against Ukraine since February 24.
In a surprising situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced Monday that “the Russian side does not intend, under the current circumstances, to continue talks with Japan on the peace treaty.”
The ministry justified this position by “the impossibility of discussing the basic document of bilateral relations with a country that has openly taken an unfriendly position and is striving to harm the interests of our country.”
Relations between Japan and Russia have always been complex, and the two countries did not sign a peace treaty after World War II due to a dispute over four small islands that make up the Kuril Archipelago.
The archipelago was taken over by the Soviet army in the closing days of World War II, and Moscow has not returned it to Tokyo since.
This inhabited archipelago is inhabited by about 20 thousand people, and Tokyo calls it “the lands of the north” and considers it “an integral part of Japan.”
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