The United Nations urged Russia and Japan this Thursday to act “with restraint”, “responsibly” and trying to avoid actions that could provoke an escalation of tensions following the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the islands of the disputed Kuril archipelago.
“This is a bilateral issue between member states, but we encourage all parties involved to act with restraint, responsibly, and to avoid any action that could further aggravate tensions,” said Daniela Gross, one of the spokespeople for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, at a press conference.
It was this very Thursday that Putin traveled in person for the first time to the island of Iturup – Etorofu according to the Japanese nomenclature – which sends a clear message from Russia about the sovereignty of the archipelago at a time of tension in which Tokyo, in addition to joining international sanctions against Moscow, has been intensifying its military maneuvers alongside the United States in the Pacific.
This visit – which included a stop at a fish processing plant and a meeting with the local population – has caused the Japanese authorities to summon the Russian ambassador in Tokyo, Nikolai Nozdrev, to express their displeasure about it.
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Hours earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi described Putin’s trip as “absolutely unacceptable,” asserting that it “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people.”
“The Northern Territories are, from a historical point of view and under International Law, an inherent part of our country,” Takaichi claimed then at an impromptu press conference in which she warned that this visit will increase Japanese society’s animosity towards Russia.
For its part, the Russian government has criticized the Japanese prime minister’s statements, calling them “extremely outrageous and unacceptable,” while categorically rejecting, through its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, such words for being, in their view, “politically irrelevant, offensive and (…) legally null.”
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