Japan Summons Russian Envoy Over Putin's Visit to Disputed Islands
Japan summoned Russia's ambassador to protest President Putin's first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, renewing a decades-old territorial row.
Japan's foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Tokyo on Thursday to register a formal protest over President Vladimir Putin's visit to the Kuril Islands, a Pacific archipelago controlled by Moscow but also claimed by Japan.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said he had strongly protested the Russian leader's trip to Etorofu Island, known in Russia as Iturup, and asked that the message be conveyed to Moscow.
Putin's visit, his first to the islands, included stops at a fish plant, a hospital, and a school on Iturup, one of the southernmost islands in the chain. He also spoke briefly with local residents and met with Valery Limarenko, the governor of Russia's Sakhalin region.
The dispute centres on four southern islands of the chain, which Japan calls the Northern Territories. The Soviet Union seized them from Japan in the closing days of World War II, and the disagreement has prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty to end their wartime hostilities.