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Kuriles Left Out of Talks with Japanese
The third round of the Russian-Japanese strategic dialog took place last week in Moscow. The Japanese delegation was led by First Deputy Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi, who stated before the talks that “We want to establish excellent relations between Japan and Russia, 21st-century relations.” Tokyo and Moscow have agreed on more and more issues in recent years, and economic relations are becoming more active.
The “strategic dialog” format was instituted by the countries' leaders at the beginning of the year. Heading the Russian team is Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Denisov. Director of the department of political coordination at the Japanese Foreign Ministry Nobukatsu Kaihara told Kommersant that the return of the Kurile Islands “was not discussed in detail” at the talks, indicating that Japan is interested in mutually profitable relations regardless of that issue. Kaihara indicated that the Japanese are concerned that Russian economic growth continue after next year's presidential elections. The Japanese do not particularly share European concerns over the democratic standards of the recent parliamentary elections.
Russia will not be allowed to forget the issue of the Kuriles either, it seems. On Saturday, the day after the strategic talks ended, the Japanese Foreign Ministry issued a warning to the Sanko Progress Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Itochu Corp., warning that, as a result of a deal with a Russian company, its products were being used on the Kurile Islands. “Such deals encourage the illegal occupation of the islands by the Russians,” the ministry warned.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 10, 2007
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