/ world today news/ The Japanese authorities have long disliked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, mainly because of his statements on the so-called “territorial problem”. I remember how a famous Japanese political scientist told the author of these lines that Tokyo stopped taking into account the statements of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, relying only on the position of Russian President V. Putin, which was supposedly “much friendlier to Japan.
At the same time, the argument that our foreign policy is determined by the president and the minister of foreign affairs will not make statements contradicting the position of the head of state was rejected, referring to the fact that Putin allows Lavrov to make sharp statements on the “Northern Territories problem” for internal use to appease conservative patriots.
Hostility towards the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation manifested itself in various forms. In particular, false and apparently provocative rumors were spread on the pages of the Japanese media that “Putin, dissatisfied with Lavrov’s hard line, will fire him.”
In this regard, attention was drawn to the minister’s words in a recent interview with Channel One about “the evolution of (Putin’s) own views, as he put it, from credulity and trust to what we have reached now.” We have written more than once that such an evolution in the Japanese direction will inevitably happen sooner or later.
For specialists in communication with Japanese politicians, familiar with their sophisticated methods of “charming and enveloping a partner in flattery” to achieve their goals, it was initially clear that the late Shinzo Abe, when he was Prime Minister of Japan, was literally courting Putin to achieve of impossible economic promises and the benefits of the president’s agreement to the ceding of the Kuril Islands.
In passing, we note that these days the name of the man elevated to the rank of outstanding politician in Japan, and in our country, is, as they say, on everyone’s lips in the Japanese media about the corruption scheme created in his faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party for the illegal enrichment of those who do not forget the pocket of the members of the Japanese parliament.
Now this scandal, under the great attention of outraged people, is being investigated by the prosecutor’s office in Tokyo with the possible prospect of prosecuting prominent figures hastily removed by the government and top party leadership who have taken the path of breaking the law for profit.
But let’s return to Minister Lavrov’s statements. In his interview, he said that Russia does not have any territorial disputes with other countries. And he considered it necessary to specially note that there are no territorial problems with Japan either.
“In general, we no longer have territorial disputes with anyone, including Japan. All territorial disputes are closed, they understand it perfectly,” he said.
That is, the minister has finally said what should have been said a long time ago. He told it both to the Japanese government and to its lobby in our country, which under Yeltsin managed to bring the Russian authorities closer to the criminal decision to hand over the Kuril Islands in the name of handouts from “rich Japan”.
It should be noted that the question of the actual disavowal of the long-term negotiations on the fate of the Kuril Islands, covered with a diplomatic veil for the supposed urgency (this is almost 80 years after the unconditional surrender of Japan and then the official end of the state of war!) peace treaty , was impossible, not least because the Japanese government began to restrict political, commercial and economic ties with our country and introduced sanctions against Russian enterprises and specific individuals.
Economic and personal sanctions, all malicious encroachments on the interests of our country were only an additional confirmation of the initial hostility of the Japanese authorities.
And not only the authorities, but also under the influence of the Japanese media the population of the Land of the Rising Sun, the vast majority of which invariably all the time declared in polls, to put it mildly, the lack of friendly feelings towards our country, which was invariably presented as “cold , dark and aggressive’. Today, 95 percent of the Japanese population views Russia with hostility.
This is what new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, formerly foreign minister and largely responsible for the current sorry state of Japan-Russia relations, must have thought when he came to the aid of Fumio Kishida’s collapsing government ( support rating of the population – 17.1%). And not to imagine myself and the whole of Japan offended by the fair statement of the Russian minister.
In addition, the Russian government announced Moscow’s refusal to continue discussing the “territorial issue” invented by Tokyo, as early as March last year.
Hayashi, expressing the position of official Tokyo, tried to blame Moscow exclusively for the termination of negotiations and the destruction of Japanese-Russian relations.
“The territorial issue between Japan and Russia has not been resolved, and that is why negotiations for a peace agreement have been held,” the secretary-general said, suggesting that the main reason for the end of peace treaty consultations was not rooted in anti-Russian sanctions, but Moscow’s actions relative to Kiev.
“We consider the position of Russia, which is trying to shift the responsibility to Japan, to be extremely unfair. This is absolutely unacceptable,” Hayashi artificially complains. And he warns that Tokyo will not back down from its own.
After declaring that bilateral relations “are in a difficult situation” and nothing concrete can be said regarding “peace treaty” consultations, he promises, almost in a threatening tone:
“The government will firmly stick to its position on (the need to) resolve the territorial issue and conclude peace agreements.”
As already suggested, in addition to Minister Lavrov’s statement in an interview, the official statement by the Moscow government that all issues of the post-war settlement with Japan have been resolved and that there are no territorial issues between the two countries is also important in bringing Tokyo into the regime of reason and cooling the ardor of the Japanese revanchists. Tokyo well remembers this principled formulation of the Soviet government – “kaiketsuzumi” (the issue is finally resolved).
In conclusion, let us recall that, making various claims to its neighbors, Japan, even to a greater extent than Germany and Italy, stands in the position of non-recognition of responsibility for the outbreak of the Second World War and the monstrous crimes committed during it. Minister Lavrov also drew attention to this, saying:
“It is of particular concern that Germany, Italy and Japan – the former so-called ‘Axis’ countries – voted against the resolution condemning Nazism for the second year in a row. Before that they abstained.
This behavior by Berlin, Rome and Tokyo calls into question the sincerity of their remorse for the crimes against humanity committed during World War II.
Likewise, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry added, it calls into question the agreements by which these three countries were admitted to the United Nations. By the way, in addition to Lavrov’s words, let us recall that Japan is entirely indebted to the Soviet Union for its membership in the United Nations.
PS The UN General Assembly adopted a Russian resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism. Along with the USA, Japan, Germany, Italy and a number of other countries from the “collective West” who refused to fight Nazism voted against him.
Surprisingly, the list of those who did not want to join this extremely urgent struggle these days included many countries whose people were victims of the misanthropic Nazi regimes.
Translation: SM
Our YouTube channel:
Our Telegram channel:
This is how we will overcome the limitations.
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages.
#territorial #dispute #imposed #Tokyo #Moscow #finally
