Medvedev's trip to Kuril Islands would hurt soul of Japanese people - Japanese embassy advisor
MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - Japan considers the possible trip of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to the Kuril Islands he announced at a government meeting on Thursday to be unacceptable.
Japan is aware of the news and Japanese policy is that if Prime Minister Medvedev visits the Northern Territories, this would contradict the policy of the Japanese government on the Northern Territories and would hurt the soul of the Japanese people, advisor of the Japanese embassy in Moscow Kazuyoshi Onishi told Interfax on Thursday.
This is unacceptable for Japan, Onishi said.
Onishi refused to comment on Russia's intentions to develop a civilian and defense infrastructure in the Kuril Islands in the framework of the federal target program, having said he could not comment on this issue at all for now.
The territorial dispute between Japan and Russia has lasted since the end of the World War II, following which all the Kuril Islands were included in the Soviet Union. However, Japan contests the status of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the rocky Habomai islets. Russia's stance is that the Southern Kuril Islands joined the Soviet Union following World War II and sovereignty over them is in no doubt.
Medvedev said earlier on Thursday that he planned to visit the Kuril Islands. "Those who have never been there [the Kuril Islands] should go there. In any case, I plan to go and see how things stand there. And I invite others to go there as well," he told a government session.
The Kuril Islands are bound to play an important role in defense so their civilian and military development will be rapid, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said. "We are restoring both civilian and defense infrastructures. That [process] started several years ago and has entered an active stage by now," Medvedev said.
"The Armed Forces and the Defense Ministry are working there not only on the military component but also on the related civilian component," the premier said. "Efforts should be pooled, moreover that the islands have performed and will perform not only their routine function but also the function of defense of our borders, which is why so much attention is being given to the local presence of units of the Russian Armed Forces," he said.
Medvedev has ordered the Finance Ministry and Ministry for the Development of the Far East to work out financing of a 10-year federal target program of the Kuril Islands' development following 2018.
