Jan 3 (Portal) – Japan’s “anti-Russian stance” is making talks of a peace deal impossible, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an op-ed published by the state news agency TASS on Tuesday.
Russia and Japan did not officially end World War II hostilities because of their standoff over islands captured by the Soviet Union at the end of the war, just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.
The islands are known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.
“It is absolutely obvious that it is impossible to discuss the signing of such a document (a peace treaty) with a state that takes openly unfriendly positions and allows itself direct threats against our country,” Rudenko said in an interview with TASS.
“We see no signs that Tokyo is turning its anti-Russian course and are trying to rectify the situation.”
Russia withdrew from its talks with Japan in March last year after Japanese sanctions were imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Japan reacted angrily to the talks, calling Moscow’s move “unfair” and “completely unacceptable”.
Separately, Rudenko also said that Russia supports Beijing’s “one China” policy on the Taiwan issue, and reiterated Moscow’s explicit support for China over the fate of the island to which the defeated ROC government fled in 1949.
“Beijing is aware that the Russian side unfailingly supports the People’s Republic of China on the Taiwan issue,” Rudenko said. “We understand that there is only one China, the PRC government is the only legitimate government representing all of China, and Taiwan is an integral part of it.”
China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has increased military and political pressure on the island over the past two years. Taipei firmly rejects Beijing’s claims to sovereignty.
Reporting in Melbourne by Lidia Kelly; Edited by Stephen Coates and Christopher Cushing
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