TOKYO (BLOOMBERG) - Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono's visit to Russia for talks on a long-running territorial dispute look set to be overshadowed by anger over official comments about the negotiations.
Russia's foreign ministry summoned the Japanese ambassador on Wednesday (Jan 9) to protest his government's recent remarks ahead of Kono's arrival on Saturday.
The island dispute has kept the two countries from sealing a peace treaty since World War II.
Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov told Toyohisa Kozuki on Wednesday that recent comments by Japanese officials distorted a 1956 agreement and created tension around the problem, according to a statement on the ministry's website.
Japan's foreign ministry said on Thursday that Kozuki had been summoned and explained Japan's position. It did not provide further details, citing the need for a quiet environment for the negotiations.
Without specifying who had made the comments, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticised the description of 2019 as a "turning point" in the talks and the need to gain the agreement of the Russian residents of the islands for a transfer to Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made comments along these lines in a Jan 1 statement and a Jan 4 press conference.
Abe has devoted political capital in office to resolve the island dispute that has simmered since the then Soviet Union seized what Russia calls the Southern Kurils at the end of World War II, expelling thousands of Japanese residents.
Japan refers to the four islands as the Northern Territories.
Abe, whose father also battled for a resolution of the dispute, renewed his vow to do all in his power to settle the issue during a Jan 6 visit to his family grave in southwestern Japan.
He has met with President Vladimir Putin 24 times since 2012, with another meeting scheduled for January.
The two leaders sparked speculation of a compromise last year by agreeing to accelerate talks based on a 1956 declaration that refers to the transfer of only two of the islands, rather than the four that Japan officially claims.
Foreign Minister Kono is set to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow on Jan 14.
