The new Prime Minister of Japan, Shigeru Ishiba, promised to maintain the policy of sanctions against Russia and assistance to Ukraine , and also declared the unchanged course of “resolving the territorial problem and concluding a peace treaty with the Russian Federation.” He stated this on October 4 during his speech in parliament.
As Kyodo News writes , the Prime Minister noted that relations with Russia are in a difficult state, but Japan will continue its course towards resolving the territorial issue and concluding a peace treaty.
Earlier, on August 7, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Japan of trying to damage the ties between Central Asian countries and Russia. She noted that there is also an attempt to “pull” them toward the Western ideology of “rules-based order,” which has anti-Russian and anti-Chinese overtones.
On June 21, Director of the Third Asian Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Lyudmila Vorobyova met with Director of the European Department of the Japanese Foreign Ministry Masashi Nakagome. She noted that current bilateral relations between Russia and Japan have deteriorated to an unprecedentedly low level, and the attempts that Tokyo is making to hinder the development of partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang are categorically unacceptable.
On June 6, the official press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, called Japan’s reaction to the words of Russian president Vladimir Putin about the conditions for resuming negotiations on concluding a peace treaty expected. The day before, the Russian leader said that there are currently no conditions for continuing a peaceful dialogue with Japan on the Kuril Islands . He noted that Tokyo has joined efforts to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. In turn, the Japanese side said that Tokyo considers Moscow’s position , which is trying to shift responsibility to Japan, unfair and completely unacceptable.