"The Japanese position indicates that it does not have sufficient incentives, economic or political interests to remove this issue from the agenda of Russian-Japanese relations," the political scientist underlined.
In his opinion, the economic climate in the Russian Far East "is not particularly favorable."
"Even the countries that do not have any territorial disputes with Russia do not make large investments in the Russian Far East," Mr. Arbatov said. He explains that the reason for the current situation lies in the fact that "Russia has failed to build a favorable business infrastructure in the region. Far East is still notorious for its lack of law and order, legal norms and regulations; people continue to flee from the region and the corruption level is high."
"Russian federal authorities emphasize the political side of the dispute, neglecting, at the same time, the economic aspect of the problem. I am sure that if South Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese businessmen started to invest in the regional economy, the Japanese would not have stayed aside and would have found ways to apply pressure on their government in order to expedite the settlement of the territorial dispute with Russia," Mr. Arbatov pointed out.
The director of the Center for International Security Studies believes that "the settlement of the territorial issues is possible only on the basis of mutual concessions."
"Russia and China used to have more serious territorial disputes than Russia an Japan do now, but they found ways to solve those disputes because both countries had serious incentives and mutual interest to accomplish that task," said Mr. Arbatov.
Japan insists on the return of four South Kurils islands. However, according to 1956 Joint Russia-Japanese Declaration, Russia agreed to return only two of them and only after signing the Peace Treaty with Japan.
