Islands dispute won't be resolved any time soon

Editor's note: At the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Feb 16, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono had a meeting to discuss a possible peace treaty and the key obstacle in the way of it－their dispute over four islands, which Russia calls the Kuril Islands and Japan the Northern Territories. China Youth Daily comments on Thursday:

This is the second meeting between the two on the issue this year. Moscow insists on Tokyo's recognition of its sovereignty over the four islands as a prerequisite for a peace treaty, which Tokyo cannot accept.

After Shinzo Abe was re-elected as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party on Sept 20, he won his third term as Japan's prime minister, which ends in September 2021, and he is likely to become the longest serving prime minister by November this year.

He looks forward to making political breakthroughs in the islands dispute. But it seems there is still a long way to go, given Moscow's firm attitude to the issue.

If Russia handed over the four islands to Japan, the United States which has an alliance with Japan could station US forces on the islands.

Japan was incapable of solving the dispute in the early 1990s when Russia was facing its most difficult times. With stable domestic politics and stronger national power, Russia today is different from how it was then.

It is good that both sides have kept restraint over their territorial dispute for so long, as they have prevented it from further complicating the situation in Northeast Asia and from becoming a flashpoint in the region.

Compared with a distant once-and-for-all peace treaty, an agreement on common development of the natural resources in the sea areas near the disputed islands would be a more practical solution and conducive to maintaining regional peace and stability in Northeast Asia, which accords with the interests of all parties in the region.

Shelving the dispute until conditions are ripe for a solution in the future is a rational option.