The Russia-Japan territorial disputes surged at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries, Toshimitsu Motegi and Sergey Lavrov, at Nagoya, Japan, on November 22 on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers’ gathering. Lavrov publicly threw cold water on the Japanese spin that Tokyo is engaged in “persistent talks” with Russia on …
Debris of INF treaty will fall far and wide
The US-Russia talks in Geneva regarding the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty have ended in failure. In a final call to salvage the treaty, Moscow offered that American experts could inspect a new suspect Russian missile, which Washington has been citing as the alibi for its decision to quite the treaty, but the US …
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Russia tamps down the Kuril hype
(Kuril Islands & Sakhalin) The expectations were high that 2019 would be a pivotal year in Russo-Japanese relations. President Vladimir Putin may visit Japan for the G20 summit in June and there has been speculation that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to sign a peace treaty at that time, bringing the World War II …
Russo-Japanese peace treaty is doable
(Map of Kuril Islands disputed by Japan and Russia) A new template is forming in the geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific – Russo-Japanese concord. The two regional powers with a troubled history are moving in the direction of concluding a peace treaty that could formally end their World War 2 hostilities and open a new page …