Welcome to english.eastday.com.Today is
Follow us @
Contribute to us!

Latest

Shanghai

Business

Culture

China

World

Pictures

Topics

Life

Services

Home >> auto >> Article
Russians visit Hokkaido ahead of joint economic project with Japan on disputed island
From:Xinhua  |  2019-08-19 18:35

Video PlayerClose

TOKYO, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Russian residents and officials visited Nemuro in Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido on Monday to begin an inspection tour related to garbage processing, ahead of one of the joint economic projects between Tokyo and Moscow slated to start on disputed islands.

The five-day visit, under a visa-free program between the two countries, will see residents from Kunashiri, one of the disputed islands, along with officials from Russia's Sakhalin, inspect a waste incineration plant and a recycling facility.

Despite the dispute, and as part of efforts to work towards resolving the row that has hampered bilateral ties between both sides, Japan has said it will provide equipment to Russia designed to compress garbage.

Sources with knowledge of the matter have also said the Russian side hopes that a waste incineration plant will be built.

The islands at the center of the dispute between Tokyo and Moscow are known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia.

The decades-old territorial spat has prevented the two countries from signing a post-World War II peace treaty and hindered diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.

Both parties have, however, provisionally agreed to furthering joint economic activities on the islands.

Such activities span defense, search and rescue operations, medical areas, industry promotion and energy development, in line with a previously proposed plan, which also covers aquaculture and tourism.

The multi-faceted cooperation plan, based around five pillars proposed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2016, was, purportedly, to become an important foundation for future ties and to help bolster mutual trust.

Waste reduction is one of the five areas under the joint initiative.

The two sides have yet to make significant progress on inking a peace treaty, despite Abe's hope to do so when he met Russian President Vladimir Putin in June on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, although little progress was made.

Both sides, however, reaffirmed their commitment to promote joint economic activities on the disputed islands.

Share