Tokyo’s current stance towards Moscow makes talks on the issue impossible, Dmitry Peskov says
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that holding contacts with Japan about reaching a peace settlement is impossible given the hostile stance Tokyo maintains towards Moscow. Japan’s Foreign Ministry earlier expressed a willingness to finalize a deal that was never concluded after World War II.
The two countries have never formally formed a peace treaty following the war due to Japan’s claim to the four southernmost islands of the Kuril chain of islands, which were captured by the Soviet Union in 1945.
“Tokyo has hurried to fully support all the unfriendly and hostile steps [taken by the West] towards Russia,” Peskov said on Tuesday, stressing that speaking about a desire to finally reach a peace agreement doesn’t align with the actual policies pursued by the Japanese authorities in relation to Russia.
Earlier in the day, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said that Tokyo planned to settle the issue of a peace deal with Moscow, but reiterated its position that the islands – Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup, and the islands of the Lesser Kuril Chain – known in Japan as the Northern Territories, are “originally Japanese and under illegal occupation by Russia.”
“The government will continue to adhere to the policy of resolving the issue of sovereignty over the four northern islands and concluding a peace treaty,” the Foreign Ministry stated in the 2025 edition of its Diplomatic Blue Book, which reviews Japan’s foreign affairs activities.
Earlier this week, Russia banned Japan’s Northern Territories Issue Association, having accused the group of advocating expanding the country’s territory by adding the contested islands. The Office of the Russian Prosecutor General said the group is funded by the Japanese authorities while calling itself a non-government organization.
The two countries have made little progress toward signing a final peace treaty in the eight decades since the end of World War II. While Japan renounced its claims to the Kuril Islands under the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, it later contended that the disputed islands are not part of the Kuril archipelago. Russia, however, maintains that all four islands are part of its sovereign territory.
Earlier this year, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his government would “firmly adhere” to the policy of resolving the Kurils issue and “concluding a peace treaty” with Moscow. The prime minister, however, admitted that the current situation in relations between Japan and Russia is difficult due to the Ukraine conflict.
Japan has joined the Western sanctions against Russia and has introduced multiple rounds of restrictions on the country since the escalation of the conflict over three years ago.
Commenting on Ishiba’s statement at the time, Russia’s ambassador to Japan, Nikolay Nozdrev, called it unrealistic. He reiterated that Moscow cannot conduct negotiations on a peace treaty while Tokyo maintains its unfriendly stance towards Russia and is seeking to damage Russia’s security and economy.
