The Sakhalin region includes Sakhalin Island and the Kurile Islands.
The Japanese Embassy in Russia and the Foreign Ministry will exchange verbal notes about the assistance in Moscow on Tuesday. An executive agreement between Japanese Consul General Natsui Shigeo and Sakhalin Region Governor Ivan Malakhov was signed in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Tuesday.
The gratuitous technical assistance program is based on a 1998 intergovernmental agreement on fishing off the Southern Kuriles, the regional administration officials said.
According to the agreement, Japanese fishermen can catch fish and other seafood in Russia's economic zone near Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan islands and the Southern Kuriles (called the Habomai archipelago in Japan and close to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido).
(From an agreement between Russia and Japan in 1875 until the end of World War II, these islands and the Kurile Islands were controlled by Japan. They officially became part of the Soviet Union in 1946.)
In exchange for fishing rights, Japan agreed to give technical assistance to the Sakhalin Region instead of a direct transfer of money. Japan has supplied various machines and equipment to energy companies in Sakhalin.
This is the first time, funds will be transferred to the Sakhalin branch of Japan's Michinoku Bank. The region's administration will purchase equipment for the island's economy not only from Japan but from Russia and other countries.
