Russia To Hold Military Exercises And Missile Tests On Disputed Island, Japanese Government Files Two Protests

Illustration of a Russian missile. (Wikimedia Commons/Участник Digr)

JAKARTA - Japan has lodged two protests with Russia after Moscow announced it would hold military exercises this month around islands claimed by Tokyo, the government said Monday.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the protests took place on Thursday and Friday after Russia issued a navigational warning ahead of target drills from Tuesday to March 1 in the sea southeast of Kunashiri Island.

Moscow also said it would test several missiles from Monday to February 25 over a wide area that includes the Northern Territory as well as Japan's exclusive economic zone.

Kunashiri is one of several disputed islands off the northern Japanese main island of Hokkaido called the Northern Territory by Tokyo, as well as the Southern Kurils by Moscow.

"Russian arsenal on the four northern islands is against Japan's stance and is unacceptable", Matsuno, a government spokesman, said at a regular press conference, citing Kyodo News on February 7.

"We have conveyed that we are closely following Russia's military activities in the region around our country, including the Northern Territories", he continued.

Tokyo claimed the Soviet Union seized the islands, also including the smaller islands of Etorofu, Shikotan and Habomai, illegally soon after Japan's surrender in World War II in August 1945. Meanwhile, Moscow argued that it was legal.

On Monday, the annual national rally to demand the return of the disputed islands was held in Tokyo, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida repeating Japan's pledge to resolve the dispute, which has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from striking a postwar peace treaty.

"Regrettably 76 years after the war, the Northern Territories issue remains unresolved and a peace treaty has not been signed by Japan and Russia", Prime Minister Kishida said at the meeting, which was held mostly online with only a few participants present amid the war of Coronavirus pandemic.

"I will vigorously advance the negotiations according to the (bilateral) agreements made so far, including the one in 2018, said PM Kishida.

To note, during the 2018 summit, Japan and Russia reaffirmed that they would enter into peace treaty talks based on the 1956 joint declaration, which stated that two of the four islands, Shikotan and the Habomai island group, would be ceded to Japan after the conclusion of the peace treaty.

Matsuno added, however, saying the government's stance on negotiating the return of the four islands remained unchanged.