PUTIN SEEKS PEACE TREATY WITH JAPAN

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that his country is ready to continue talks with Japan toward a postwar peace treaty despite speculation in Moscow that last year's constitutional amendment would prohibit the country from committing to negotiations to resolve a territorial dispute with Tokyo, according to Kyodo News report.

"Both Russia and Japan share the strategic interest in concluding a peace treaty," Putin said in response to a question from Kyodo News during an online press conference involving major press agencies around the world.

"We are ready to continue negotiations," he said.

A longstanding territorial dispute over islands off Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido has prevented the two countries from concluding a peace treaty after World War II.

Russia's constitutional amendment, which took effect in July last year, bars the country from transferring territory to any foreign power.

Putin said he does not think Moscow should suspend talks with Japan, although he will take the amendment into account. It is the first time since the constitutional change for the Russian leader to say the bilateral talks should go on.

Russia wants Japan to recognize that the islands -- called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan -- were legitimately acquired following Tokyo's 1945 surrender in World War II. Japan, however, has taken the view that the seizure was illegal.

In 2018, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Putin agreed to step up peace treaty negotiations based on a 1956 joint declaration between Japan and the former Soviet Union. The document states that of the group of four islands, the smaller two -- Shikotan and the Habomai islet group -- will be handed over to Japan following the conclusion of a peace treaty.

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