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Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir
Lukin (the Yabloko faction) considers Vladimir Putin’s
visit to Japan to mark a perceptible step forward
in increasing trust between the two countries.
“Our strategic goal is to improve
relationships with Japan. I think that Japan
is also in turn interested in improving its relations
with Russia,” said Vladimir Lukin in an interview
with journalists on September 4, 2000.
According to Lukin, Japan, within
the framework of the resolution of this problem related
to an improvement in mutual understanding between
the two countries, will also help resolve not only
the well-known territorial problem (about the four
Kuriles islands) in the first place, but also “the
more serious one - improvement of security in the
South-East region”.
According to V Lukin, Japan expressed
great concern about its relationships with China and
the USA. Therefore, stressed Lukin, “I would not say
that today Japan is focused,
as we used to say before, on the Northern territories
problem, although this problem is certainly still
present”.
Lukin also thinks that errors have
been made during attempts to resolve this problem.
He explained that here the problem concerns first
and foremost the determination of the date for signing
a peace treaty between the RF and Japan, which was
scheduled for 2000 during Boris Yeltsin’s presidency.
Lukin noted that “we have been gradually
shifting away from that date, as the quality of the
future treaty seems to us more important than the
date of its signing”.
Lukin also stressed that in his view
quality assumes that both the sides will profit from
signing this treaty. That is why the issue of raising
the degree of trust between the two countries has
today come to the foreground,” said the Deputy.
According Lukin the Russian-Japan
talks will continue until both sides have managed
to develop “acceptable wording”.
Based on Interfax reports.
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