Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida announced that Russia and Japan will hold peace treaty talks in Tokyo on June 22.
TOKYO (Sputnik) – Russia and Japan will hold peace treaty talks in Tokyo on June 22, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Friday.
The talks will be held at the level of deputy foreign ministers, Kishida said as quoted by the Japanese Kyodo news agency.
Japan and Russia never signed a permanent peace treaty after World War II because of a disagreement over four islands, which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan the Northern Territories. The disputed islands, located in the Sea of Okhotsk, were claimed by Soviet forces at the end of the war.
In May, both Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov announced plans of holding a round of Japan-Russia peace treaty talks in June.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.