Russia, Japan Need To Build Trust In Bilateral Relations - Putin

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Russia, Japan Need to Build Trust in Bilateral Relations - Putin

Russia and Japan need to build trust in bilateral relations in order to sign peace treaty, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Russia and Japan need to build trust in bilateral relations in order to sign peace treaty, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"Indeed, I have spoken about the need to increase trust. I am not saying that what I am about to say is some sort of insurmountable obstacle, but nevertheless. We are talking about building trust, we are talking about possibly signing a peace treaty, reaching some sort of compromise on territorial issues that Japan is constantly raising, even though we think they do not exist. Nevertheless, we are not giving up on this dialogue," Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club forum in the Russian city of Sochi.

The president said that some of Tokyo's steps were not favorable to the development of relations.

"For our part, we have been creating, trying to create the necessary conditions for trust.

Japan went and introduced sanctions against us ... Nevertheless we are still not giving up, we are ready to continue the dialogue," Putin said.

The president said, regarding the reaction of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Russia's proposal to conclude a peace treaty by the end of the year, that Tokyo considers it unacceptable without resolving the issues with contested territory first.

"Prime Minister Abe has his own point of view ... He said that for Japan, at the moment, this approach is unacceptable and we have to reach decisions on territorial issues in principle first, and then we can talk about a peace treaty," Putin said.

The president conceded that it was possible to proceed this way, but pointed out that the issue has remained unresolved for decades.