Russia Ready To Work With Japan To Resolve Complex Issues - Putin

Russia is ready to work with Japan to resolve complicated issues, including that of Kuril Islands, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

SINGAPORE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2018) Russia is ready to work with Japan to resolve complicated issues, including that of Kuril Islands, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"We have resumed dialogue with our Japanese partners precisely on the basis of the declaration of 1956, this is exactly what our Japanese partners asked us for ... We believe that everything we have achieved today has developed on the basis of international legal documents ... However, as you know, Japan puts the question differently. We are ready to work with them," Putin told reporters.

In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a declaration saying that after signing the peace treaty the Soviet Union would be ready to transfer to Japan two southern islands of the Kuril Ridge.

However, the Russian president pointed to the fact that the document "does not say ... under which country's sovereignty these islands would remain."

The two countries ratified the declaration but then "Japan refused to implement these agreements," and so later did the Soviet Union, Putin added.

"But, indeed, yesterday during our meeting, the [Japanese] prime minister said that Japan was ready to return to the discussion of the issue on the basis of the 1956 declaration," the president noted.