Beijing hopes Moscow, Tokyo will mend ties, Foreign Ministry says

The Chinese authorities have paid attention to the deterioration of Russian-Japanese relations and hope for normalization of contacts between Moscow and Tokyo, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin stated on Tuesday.

“We have paid attention to this information [about deteriorating relations between Russia and Japan]. China hopes that Moscow and Tokyo will successfully resolve the relevant issues,” he said at a briefing.

However, the Chinese diplomat did not say what steps Beijing expects from both sides. After a brief statement, he immediately moved on to answer the next question.

On Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called Moscow’s decision to terminate negotiations on a peace treaty with Tokyo unacceptable. He also clarified that the Japanese government did not intend to revise the budget for the 2022 fiscal year (starting on April 1), which, in particular, provides for the development of economic cooperation with Russia, since these funds are aimed at supporting national enterprises.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Russian authorities were halting negotiations on the peace treaty because of Japan’s unilateral measures in connection with the situation in Ukraine. The trips of Japanese citizens have also been stopped on the basis of agreements on visa-free exchanges between the southern Kuril Islands of the Russian Federation and Japan from 1991 and on maximally facilitated visits by former Japanese residents of the islands to their former places of residence from 1999.

TASS