Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara repeated before his visit to Moscow that the four South Kuril Islands belong to Japan, Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday.
Maehara also said that visits of Russian politicians to the islands or increasing the Russian military presence there will not change the standpoint of Tokyo.
Speaking during a rally in Tokyo on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Medvedev's visit to the islands last November an "inexcusable rudeness," sparking an angry response from Moscow.
On Wednesday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russia will increase its military presence on the disputed Islands.
Maehara will visit Russia on Friday and meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss international and economic cooperation between the two countries.
“It’s important to promote Japanese-Russian relations,” Maehara said. “It would be good to solve the territorial issue and sign a peace treaty,” he said.
The chain of islands in the North Pacific, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, was seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War Two and remains a source of tension between Moscow and Tokyo. Russia claims that the islands are "unalienable Russian territory."
TOKYO, February 9 (RIA Novosti)
