TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe heads to Russia yesterday in a show of support for President Vladimir Putin at the Sochi Olympics, just hours after headlining a rally demanding that Moscow return islands seized from Japan.
Abe’s trip to attend the Games and hold his fifth summit with Putin since taking office 13 months ago, despite the seven-decade territorial dispute, stands in marked contrast to Japan’s sharply deteriorating ties with China and South Korea, involving spats over tiny uninhabited islands.
For Putin, the appearance of G7 leader Abe at yesterday’s opening ceremony provides a high-profile seal of approval. The Russian leader faces global criticism over the country’s human rights record and a recent law against gay “propaganda,” which opponents say curtails the rights of homosexuals.
US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German President Joachim Gauck are not attending the Games.
The US delegation includes three openly gay representatives.
Russia’s domestic policies have not provoked controversy in Japan, but Abe’s trip comes against the backdrop of the territorial dispute. He leaves immediately after addressing an annual “Northern Territories Day” gathering, meant to pressure Russia into returning the islands, which Russia says comprise the southern end of its Kurile chain.
Moscow took the islands east of Hokkaido days before Japan surrendered in World War Two, forcing 17,000 Japanese to leave. The often acrimonious dispute has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty.
After last year’s rally, two Russian fighter jets briefly entered Japan’s airspace near the islands, prompting Japan to scramble its combat fighters. But Abe and Putin have not let the dispute block progress in diplomacy centring on natural gas and other resources.
By contrast, the leaders of China and Korea have rebuffed Abe’s repeated calls to meet. Besides the isle spats, Abe angered Beijing and Seoul with a December pilgrimage to a shrine they see as a symbol of Tokyo’s past militarism. Russia, too, criticised the shrine visit, but did not let it derail ties with Japan.
Abe’s Sochi trip is “a manifestation that country-to-country relations are moving in a good direction,” said former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, who has long-standing ties with Russia and has done much of the legwork for Abe’s bilateral diplomacy. Mori told reporters the two sides are trying to arrange for Putin to visit Japan in the autumn.
Abe has made ties with Russia a priority, starting with a first-in-a-decade Moscow summit. Talks are to continue this year, although neither side expects a swift end to the dispute.
Reuters
