Japan PM strongly opposes Russian halt to peace treaty talks

Japan reacted angrily on Tuesday (March 22) after Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril islands because of sanctions imposed by Tokyo over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia and Japan have still not formally ended World War Two hostilities because of the standoff over islands just off Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories. The islands were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.

"This entire situation has been created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Russia's response to push this onto Japan-Russia relations is extremely unfair and completely unacceptable," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, adding that Japan's attitudes towards seeking a peace treaty were unchanged and it had protested the Russian move.

Japan has imposed sanctions on 76 individuals, seven banks and 12 other bodies in Russia, most recently on Friday (March 18), and included defence officials and the state-owned arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.