News Russia: U.S. military presence impeding peace treaty with Japan

The Kremlin has indicated that the U.S. military bases in Japan are a significant obstacle to Moscow and Tokyo finalizing a peace treaty. This week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, marking the first state visit by a Japanese leader in nearly a decade. Their discussions will focus on strengthening security and economic partnerships, including talks on defence collaboration and potential enhancements to the U.S. military's operational structure in Japan. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov highlighted the proximity of U.S. military forces to Russian borders and noted that this presence has historically hindered progress towards resolving the primary issue between Russia and Japan—the absence of a formal peace treaty since World War II.


I don't know why there wasn't more of a rapprochement between Japan and Russia in the Yeltsin era, but I doubt there will be any significant progress on a peace treaty under Putin.

A territorial dispute over a disputed Pacific island chain, known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories, is a key issue. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in January that Japan would have to drop territorial claims to the islands if it wanted to conclude a peace treaty. Moscow withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the islands in 2022 because of Japanese sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine. Relations have soured further since.

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Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/kreml...pedes-any-peace-treaty-with-tokyo-2024-04-08/

I have to wonder if another reason for Russia to say that is to try and get the US forces out of the region to help China out.