"I am satisfied with the results of my visit to Japan," Putin told an annual Kremlin news conference referring to his trip in November. "We discussed openly and in detail the complex issues pertaining to a peace treaty."
Russia and Japan have failed to sign an official peace treaty concluding hostilities in 1945 due to an ownership dispute around four Kuril Islands off Russia's Pacific coast. But the president cautioned against using the problem as an instrument for addressing internal political issues.
"We are looking together for a solution that would be acceptable both for the Japanese and Russian sides and without undermining international agreements in Yalta, Potsdam and San Francisco," the president said in a reference to the conferences that sought to resolve the territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.
The Yalta conference between the Allied nations in 1945 decided that the Kuril Islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union. The subsequent conference in Potsdam, Germany, in the same year ruled that Japan should renounce any right to the islands. However, the conference in San Francisco in 1951 resulted in the Soviet Union refusing to sign a treaty that provided no international recognition for the islands as Soviet territory.
In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan attempted to draft a peace treaty but failed to reach an agreement, and signed a Joint Declaration saying that the talks should continue and the question could be resolved after a peace treaty is concluded. Little has changed to this day.
In this context, Putin said Russia would seek a solution with due respect for Japan's interests, and proceeding from its own national interests as well.
