{"id":201224,"date":"2019-02-07T05:32:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T10:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=201224"},"modified":"2019-02-07T05:32:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T10:32:50","slug":"japans-abe-vows-to-resolve-territorial-dispute-with-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/02\/07\/japans-abe-vows-to-resolve-territorial-dispute-with-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s Abe vows to resolve territorial dispute with Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cIt is not easy to resolve this task remaining over 73 years since the war. Yet, we need to tackle this,\u201d Abe said. (File Photo by Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Thursday to take a \u201cstep-by-step\u201d approach in resolving a territorial dispute with Russia left over from World War II.<\/p>\n

Abe told a rally of former residents of four islands seized by Russia in the war’s final days and their supporters Thursday that settling the conflict over what Japan calls its \u201cnorthern territories\u201d was difficult but necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not easy to resolve this task remaining over 73 years since the war. Yet, we need to tackle this,\u201d Abe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping in mind your sentiments toward the Northern Territory, we are determined to take a step-by-step approach toward resolving the territorial issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regaining the islands north of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido has been a priority for Abe and his conservative base. For seven decades, the dispute has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty.<\/p>\n

In November, Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to accelerate negotiations based on a 1956 Soviet proposal to return two of the islands to Japan.<\/p>\n

That suggestion angered Russian nationalists, and last month Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Japan it must recognize the islands as part of Russia as a starting point for talks.<\/p>\n

Abe said the negotiations would continue based on the guidelines agreed to with Putin in order to sign a peace treaty \u201cwhile people of Japan and Russia strengthen their mutual trust and friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Abe is keen to make progress on the dispute with Russia and find opportunities to co-operate in developing oil and gas and other natural resources, China is the overriding concern, said James Brown, associated professor at Temple University’s Japan Campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also the concern that the United States, especially under the ‘America First’ policy of (President Donald) Trump, is somewhat of a less reliable ally than it was in the past,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

To avoid facing isolation among \u201chostile\u201d powers such as China, North Korea and Russia, \u201cit seems that Abe has calculated that of those countries, it would make sense to try and normalize relations with Russia and thereby to draw it away from China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Thursday to take a \u201cstep-by-step\u201d approach in resolving a territorial dispute with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":87154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-haruka-nuga","mauthors-kaori-hitomi","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}