Medvedev visits disputed islands

Russia’s president has visited a group of disputed islands claimed by both Russia and Japan, drawing criticism from the Japanese prime minister. Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit the Kurile Islands on Monday, shortly before a trip to Japan for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting scheduled for mid-November. Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister, said that Medvedev’s visit to the island of Kunshir, known in Japan as Kunashiri, was “regrettable.” “Japan’s stance is that those four northern islands are part of our country’s territory,” he told a parliamentary panel. Japanese news agency Jiji quoted a senior foreign ministry official as saying that

Posted by on November 1, 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry