Japan, Russia agree to arrange more flights to South Kuril Islands for former residents

Japan and Russia have made an agreement to arrange more charger flights to the South Kuril Islands for their former Japanese residents, Japan’s Mainichi newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, the agreement will be officially announced during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Russia, set to take place on May 26.

In September 2017, Russia and Japan arranged the first charter flight to the South Kuril Islands for their former residents. An agreement on that was reached at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Japanese prime minister held in Moscow on April 27, 2017.

South Kuril Islands issue

Since the mid-20th century, Russia and Japan have been holding consultations in order to clinch a peace treaty as a follow-up to World War II. The Kuril Islands issue remains the sticking point since after WWII the islands were handed over to the Soviet Union while Japan laid claims to the four southern islands. In 1956, the two countries signed a common declaration on ending the state of war and restoring diplomatic and all other relations, however, a peace treaty has still not been reached. Moscow has stated many times that Russia’s sovereignty over the islands cannot be called into question.