Abe, Putin to discuss territorial dispute in Japan

TOKYO (AA) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a hot spring resort in western Japan on Thursday during a visit that will see the leaders discuss a decades-long territorial dispute.

"I am very delighted to welcome your first visit to Japan in 11 years at my home, Nagato," Abe was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency at the start of talks in Nagato in Yamaguchi prefecture.

Putin told reporters, "I hope that the summit today and tomorrow will greatly contribute to promotion of Japan-Russia ties."

The meeting is the fourth this year between Abe and Putin amid the Japanese premier’s efforts for a breakthrough in a long-running dispute over ownership of four islands north of Hokkaido, that Japan sees as being occupied by Russia.

The two countries have not yet signed a peace treaty to formally end hostilities in World War II as Tokyo has refused to sign one unless -- and until -- Russia returns the islands known as the Northern Territory in Japan, and the Southern Kurils in Russia.

The four islands in question -- Kunashiri, Etorofu, Shikotan and the Hobamai group -- were annexed by the Soviet army in the last days of the war.

Russia maintains that sovereignty was recognized following agreements at the end of the war, however, Japan has disputed this claim -- simply seeing Moscow as having taken over the islands as war booty.

Two weeks before Putin’s visit, Abe sent his foreign minister Fumio Kishida to Moscow, presumably to finalize details or perhaps to lobby Putin one more time before the two met in Japan.

"I want to negotiate as a representative of Japan with the earnest desires of the former residents [of the disputed islands] deeply engraved in my mind," Abe said ahead of Thursday’s meeting.

While there will almost certainly be progress on relatively small points, such as allowing visa-free traffic to the islands, most observers doubt that Abe can make any strong progress on an issue that has bedeviled Russo-Japanese relations for more than 70 years.

After staying at a hot spa resort, Abe and Putin are due to travel to Tokyo on Friday.