Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday landed in the Kuril Islands, prompting a swift rebuke from Tokyo, which claims sovereignty over the northwest Pacific archipelago in a long-running dispute.
Medvedev landed on Iturup, one of four islands in the chain that lies off Russia’s far eastern coast and just north of Japan, Russian media reports said.
“Everything is perfectly modern here,” Medvedev said on his arrival. “This is the result of our development program for the Kuril Islands.”
Hajime Hayashi, head of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ European division, telephoned the Russian ambassador in Tokyo over the visit to the islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories.
The trip “contradicts Japan’s position over the Northern Territories and hurts the feelings of the Japanese people... It is extremely regrettable,” a ministry official quoted Hayashi as saying.
Soviet troops seized the islands just after Japan surrendered in World War II.
The seven-decade-old dispute has hampered trade and prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal post-war peace treaty.
Both the Kremlin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had hoped to start mending relations in order to revive trade, with Japan seeking broader access to Russia’s plentiful oil and natural gas supplies.
According to the Interfax news agency, Medvedev is to visit a forum on the education of Russian youth and several economic projects on the archipelago, including Iturup Airport, which opened in September.
He went to the Kurils after making an official visit to Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, where he visited a space port being built in Vostochny.
The cosmodrome is designed to ease Russia’s dependence on space launches in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Medvedev visited the islands in 2012, and Russia held military exercises there last year. Both incidents provoked protests from Tokyo.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese