TOKYO, June 24-RIA Novosti. Japan has sent a protest to Russia in connection with the large-scale military exercises that began yesterday in the waters of the Sea of Japan, on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, Secretary General of the Japanese government Katsunobu Kato told reporters.
According to NHK, the protest was transmitted by the head of the Russian department of the Japanese Foreign Ministry to the Russian Embassy in Tokyo.
In total, more than 10 thousand servicemen, up to 500 units of military equipment, about 32 aircraft, about 12 ships and vessels of the Pacific Fleet for various purposes take part in these exercises. The maneuvers in the island zone of the Eastern Military District (VVO) will be held in two stages within five days.
As noted in the press service of the VVO, the exercises are one of the stages of checking the operational and combat training of troops in the summer training period. During the event, the trained leadership will work out the use of an interspecific grouping of troops to ensure the military security of Russia on the eastern borders.
Japan claims the islands of Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup and Habomai, referring to the bilateral Treaty on Trade and Borders of 1855. Tokyo made the return of the islands a condition for concluding a peace treaty with the Russian Federation, which was never signed after the end of World War II.
In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a joint declaration in which Moscow agreed to consider the possibility of transferring the two islands to Japan in the event of a peace treaty. The USSR hoped to put an end to this, while Japan considered the deal only part of the solution to the problem, without giving up claims to all the islands. The subsequent negotiations did not lead to anything. Moscow's position is that the islands became part of the USSR after the Second World War and Russia's sovereignty over them is beyond doubt.
