MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty after World War II behind Tokyo's claims to Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan islands and the Habomai group of islets dividing the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean.
Moscow maintains that the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty transferring control of the islands to the Soviet Union stipulates Russian sovereignty over the Kurils, which Tokyo classifies as its northern territories.
“We aren’t doing this and we won’t do this, we won’t give the Kuril Islands and we won’t beg Japan for a peace agreement,” Lavrov said during a live linkup on kp.ru.
After a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in May, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he suggested a new approach to Kuril Islands' dispute.
