Japan's foreign minister to visit Russia in January

Kono

December 17, 2000
Web posted at: 8:47 AM HKT (0047 GMT)

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono will visit Russia in January for talks on a long-stalled treaty to end World War Two hostilities, a Japanese news agency said.

Kono will meet Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on January 16-17 for talks on the treaty that has been stalled by a more than half-century-old dispute over four small islands seized by Soviet troops in the waning days of the war, Kyodo News reported from Moscow, citing Russian diplomatic sources.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and then-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto vowed in 1997 to work towards clinching a peace treaty by the end of 2000.

Japanese officials were hoping for a high-level meeting with Russia some time this month to reach an agreement by the deadline, it said.

But with time running out in the year and no major meetings on the agenda, it looks as though one of the largest diplomatic stumbling blocks between the two countries of the 20th century will have to wait until the 21st century for a resolution.

Soviet troops seized the islands, off Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido, at the end of the war in 1945.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment due to the weekend holiday.

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