talks

Russian Presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, in the wake of media, reported that Russia had placed coastal missile systems Bastion and Bal on the Iturup and Kunashir islands, affirmed that the deployment of missile systems in the Kuril Islands is well founded and it should not harm Russia’s talks with Tokyo, including those on concluding a peace treaty.  Russia and Japan have been in talks (with intermissions) over a peace treaty based on the outcome of World War II. Sovereignty over the southern part of the Kuril Islands is the stumbling block. After the war, the Soviet Union took over the whole of the Kuril archipelago. Japan keeps disputing sovereignty over the Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan islands and the uninhabited string of small islands Habomai. On Saturday, after a meeting  with Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, affirmed that the peace treaty between the two countries isn’t a simple problem to resolve but Moscow-Tokyo consultations on the issue are continuing. At the same time, the Russian President affirmed that talks on signing a peace treaty prove the evidence of the progress in the relations between the two countries.