'Joined unfriendly nations': Russia rejects talks possibility with Japan on peace treaty

A comprehensive dialogue with Japan on the WWII peace treaty "is currently impossible," Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to APA. "A meaningful dialogue on a peace treaty with Japan is unlikely to be possible now. Because Tokyo joined the camp of countries that are not friendly [US, EU] to sanction the Russian Federation," said Peskov.

Moscow scrapped the World War II peace treaty talks with Japan over its coordinated response to the Ukraine war with its ally the US. Just days after Russia annexed four regions of war-torn Ukraine, Japan imposed a barrage of sanctions on Russian officials and its neighbouring ally Belarus. Russia's Foreign Ministry derided Japan for colluding with Group of Seven (G7) partners against the Russian Federation. Moscow, in turn, ended a visa-free regime for Japanese nationals. "In the light of the outspokenly unfriendly nature of Japan’s unilateral restrictions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine the following measures are to be taken," the Russian Foreign Ministry announced in a statement. 

Japan 'not displaying anything constructive:' Peskov

On  Monday, at a state presser, Peskov dismissed a possibility that Russia might resume talks on signing a peace treaty with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government. "Japan has quite actively joined the camp of those countries that became unfriendly to us. And with its actions in terms of bilateral relations Japan is not displaying anything constructive," he asserted. Furthermore, Putin's press secretary said that any "meaningful dialogue" with Tokyo "is currently absent and certainly under these conditions it is hardly possible to talk about this possibility de facto." 

Earlier, the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, had expressed its willingness to resume the stalled discussions with Russia, saying that despite the war in Ukraine, and the difficult state of affairs between Tokyo and Moscow, Japan looks forward to resolving territorial issues with Moscow and "concluding the peace treaty." The Russian Foreign Ministry unilaterally terminated the treaty talks in March 2022 and also scrapped the bilateral dialogue and arrangements with Japan on joint economic activities on the southern Kuril Islands. Moscow also suspended the 1998 bilateral safe fishing agreement near the disputed Kuril islands known as the Northern Territories in Japan.