Japan wants Russia to resume talks on fishing agreement

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Japan said on Monday that it wants Russia to resume negotiations on the 1998 bilateral fishing agreement that was suspended by Moscow last June.

“We will firmly request Russia engages in intergovernmental talks so that our fishing operations can begin as soon as possible in 2023,” Hirokazu Matsuno, the Japanese government’s top spokesman said at a news conference in Tokyo.

Justifying its decision to suspend the pact, Moscow had said the step was taken because Tokyo violated its obligations under the agreement by delaying payments and ceasing to provide technical support to a development project in Russia’s far eastern Sakhalin region, in return for which Moscow annually allocated a fishing quota to Japan.

However, Japan had said the project was “not a condition for continuing the agreement,” calling Moscow’s suspension a “unilateral” move.

It is “unacceptable,” said Matsuno after Moscow notified Tokyo last Thursday that it was “unable to provide information on a suitable date for holding annual intergovernmental negotiations” on the pact.

Tokyo, has, since then paid funds for the project, and fishing has resumed.

The 1998 agreement covers waters around the Moscow-controlled Kuril Islands, which Tokyo claims and refers to as the Northern Territories.

The agreement was signed following a series of incidents in which Japanese fishing vessels were seized and sometimes fired upon by Russian authorities.

“The deal is designed to allow Japanese fishermen to catch several marine species such as Atka mackerel and octopus, among others, around the islets called the Southern Kurils in Russia, in exchange for the payment of ‘cooperation money’ to Russian authorities. Catch and operating conditions are determined by annual negotiations,” Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

Moscow's suspension of the agreement also comes after Japan joined its western allies to sanction Russia for its war on Ukraine launched on Feb. 24 last year.

Besides President Vladimir Putin and his aides, Tokyo has sanctioned many Russian entities and restricted investments in Russia.

Russia and Japan have not signed a peace treaty since World War II and have a territorial dispute over what Moscow calls the Southern Kuril Islands – a set of four islets controlled by Russia that Japan identifies as the Northern Territories.

At the 1945 Yalta Conference, the former Soviet Union (now Russia) agreed to begin military operations on the eastern front in exchange for receiving some Japanese territories, including the Kuril Islands.

After the war, however, with the start of the Cold War, supported by Western countries, Japan rejected the Soviet Union's sovereignty over the islands.

Due to the dispute, Russia and Japan have never signed a peace treaty and are technically still at war. As both sides claim the territories, the question of the Kurils' sovereignty remains uncertain.

Tokyo regularly protests visits of Russian officials to the islands.

Russian authorities fear the possible deployment of US missile systems on the islands if they are returned to Japan, posing a direct military threat to Moscow.