Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will try to resolve a key territorial dispute, the top government spokesman said July 3. Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said he hoped the next week’s meeting would serve as “an important catalyst” to resolving the longstanding dispute over four islands.
Although the Russian president recognizes the difficulty over resolving the dispute, Japan welcomes his intention to resolve the issue over the Kuril Islands, Machimura said. “We hope to advance mutual efforts to find some common ground by using our wisdom while President Medvedev is in office, and the Fukuda Cabinet will also do its best to work on it,” he said at a press conference.
The two leaders were expected to meet on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Toyako July 7-9. The dispute over four Russian-held islands, north-east of Japan’s main northern island of Hokkaido, has prevented the two nations from formally ending the hostilities of World War II with a peace treaty.