MOSCOW: The unfriendly actions of Japan’s previous governments have effectively destroyed bilateral cooperation between Moscow and Tokyo, ...
MOSCOW: The unfriendly actions of Japan’s previous governments have effectively destroyed bilateral cooperation between Moscow and Tokyo, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Unfortunately, Japan is currently taking a very unfriendly stance toward Russia, joining all the illegal sanctions and restrictions imposed on our country," Peskov noted.
"As a result of the position taken by previous Japanese governments in recent years, bilateral dialogue has been brought to virtually zero," the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.
In her policy speech to parliament, Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said nothing about Tokyo's willingness to continue supporting Ukraine and maintaining sanctions against Russia. Her predecessors in office, Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba, included this wording in their speeches.
Since spring 2022, the Japanese government has introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russia, prompting Moscow to halt peace treaty consultations with Tokyo. Russia also withdrew from talks on joint economic activities in the southern Kuril Islands, and trips by former Japanese residents to the area have been suspended.
According to Russian Ambassador to Japan Nikolay Nozdryov, Tokyo has "effectively decided to completely dismantle relations with one of its main neighbors," concluding that the costs of this step would be lower than the perceived benefits of "opportunistically joining the anti-Russian campaign" initiated by the West.
Later, during a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko and Japanese Ambassador to Moscow Akira Muto, the Russian side emphasized that Tokyo’s deliberate actions had driven bilateral relations to their lowest-ever point in history.
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