Abe, Putin to address disputed islands issue

Abe, 62, who wants to leave a diplomatic legacy with a breakthrough in ties with Russia, may even alter a long-standing demand that the sovereignty of all four disputed islands northeast of Hokkaido be resolved before a peace treaty ending WW-II is signed, politicians and experts said. 

Abe’s courtship of Putin risks irking key ally the United States, given that Washington is feuding with Moscow over Syria and the annexation of Crimea, although Japanese diplomats have sought to ease American concerns. 

“I will resolve the territorial issue, end the abnormal situation in which no peace treaty has been concluded even 71 years after the war and cultivate the major possibility of Japan-Russia cooperation in areas such as the economy and energy,” Abe said in a speech to parliament this week. 

Those bold pledges belie a tangled disagreement over who owns the islands off the northeast of Japan and Russia’s eastern coast, while strong public opposition in Russia to compromise could limit Putin’s room for manoeuvre. 

But Abe, who has met Putin 14 times since his first 2006-2007 premiership, has a chance to make headway when he holds a summit with Putin on Dec. 15 in his constituency of Yamaguchi, in southwestern Japan. They will also meet at gathering in Peru in November.

“For Abe, a breakthrough needs to be there,” a senior Japanese government official said. “Abe is trying to break the ice in the frozen situation on the peace treaty issue,” he said, adding that Japan did not expect an “overall resolution.” The territorial feud stems from the Soviet Union’s decision in the final days of World War Two to seize the four islands that Tokyo says are its sovereign territory.