Politics
Putin, Abe Agree to Speed Talks Over 70-Year-Old Island Dispute
- Russia, Japan leaders hold 23rd meeting without breakthrough
- Soviet-era offer to return two of four islands reaffirmed
Shinzo Abe and Vladimir Putin.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to accelerate talks on resolving a dispute over four islands that has kept their countries from sealing a peace treaty since World War II.
At a meeting Wednesday in Singapore, the two leaders affirmed that a 1956 declaration under which the Soviet Union agreed to return two islands after the conclusion of a peace treaty with Japan will form the basis for the negotiations, according to both Abe and Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who separately briefed reporters after the meeting.