“Step-by-step, the agreements, which we reached with Russian President [Vladimir] Putin are being implemented,” Abe said. “Former residents of the [Southern Kuril] Islands go on a pilgrimage tour by plane to their relatives’ graves and joint economic activity is being cultivated on the four islands.”

“We will speed up talks based on the 1956 Joint Declaration, solve the territorial problem and sign a peace treaty,” Abe said. “We are moving towards this without any hesitation. I’m fully determined to achieve this goal together with President (Vladimir Putin),” he stressed, TASS reported.

Russia and Japan have been in talks to sign a peace treaty since the mid-20th century. The main stumbling block to achieving this is the ownership issue over the Southern Kuril Islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan. After the end of World War II, the Kuril Islands were incorporated into the Soviet Union. However, the ownership of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan Islands and the Habomai Islands has been challenged by Japan. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly said that Russia’s sovereignty over these islands, which is committed to paper in international documents, cannot be called in question.

In November 2018, Putin and Abe held a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Singapore and agreed that the two countries would accelerate the pace of the peace negotiations based on the 1956 Joint Declaration. The declaration ended the state of war and said that the Soviet government was ready to hand Shikotan Island and a group of small islands called Habomai over to Japan on condition that Tokyo would take control of them once a peace treaty was signed.

In May 2019, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov highlighted that the document clearly said that the border issue could be only considered after signing a peace treaty.

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“We have touched upon the issues that concern Japan and Russia, first of all in terms of security, and agreed that we will decrease (the number of) issues where there is lack of understanding, work on aligning our positions and thus increase mutual trust,” Patrushev told reporters.

When asked whether the two discussed a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, Patrushev said, “The treaty must be agreed.”

“We have to create conditions for that, this is what we will be doing,” he said, Sputnik reported.

Moscow and Tokyo have not signed a permanent peace treaty after the end of World War II. The dispute over the southern Kuril Islands has been one of the main stumbling blocks in the peace talks.

In 1956, both sides signed a joint declaration that provided for the restoration of bilateral relations after the end of World War II. The Soviet Union also agreed to consider handing over two out four disputed islands — Habomai and Shikotan — to Japan, but Tokyo insisted on getting all the Southern Kurils, referring to them as the “Northern Territories”.

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