Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Tokyo on Tuesday evening to exchange ideas toward resolving their territorial dispute.

 

 

At the press conference following the meeting, Komura and Lavrov said they both have the desire for a resolution and agreed to make utmost efforts toward resolving the long-standing dispute.

 

The two ministers also agreed to hold the third round of vice foreign ministerial talks in Moscow on December 6.

 

Japan and Russia arranged the first two rounds of such talks under the goal of seeking "common strategic interests" in January and June respectively.

 

However, Kyodo News said that Komura and Lavrov's remarks to the media did not indicate any concrete progress in seeking a mutually acceptable settlement to the territorial dispute.

 

The meeting was a follow-up of a telephone conversation between Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, during which the two leaders agreed to expedite the process of resolving the dispute.

 

Trade between the two countries expanded smoothly during the past several years, reaching the record high in volume in 2006. However, their political ties remained somewhat at odds mainly due to the territorial dispute.

 

Mutually confronting claims of sovereignties over four islands which are located northeast off Japan's northernmost Hokkaido, have been blocking the sound development of ties between Japan and Russia, who signed no peace treaty following World War II because of the dispute.

 

The four islands, now known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, were occupied by Soviet troops after the war and are currently under Russian control.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2007)