Kremlin: US military presence in Japan is an obstacle to the peace treaty

report Mehr News Agency Citing Reuters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the US military presence in Japan has always been an obstacle to Moscow and Tokyo’s agreement on the disputed Kuril Islands.

Pskov said: The defense coalition is practically there (Japan) and we are aware of the military power of the United States which is stationed in Japan and in other words near our borders!

He added: This issue has always been an obstacle on the way to reaching an agreement to solve our main problem, the peace treaty.

Pskov’s statements were made on the eve of the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden. This is the first time in the last 9 years that a Japanese prime minister has visited Washington. The meeting aims to show the security and economic relations between the two countries, and the leaders of the two countries will probably talk about bilateral cooperation in the field of defense equipment and updating the US military command base in Tokyo.

Russia and Japan have never formally signed a peace treaty to end hostilities during World War II. The territorial disputes between these two countries over the islands that are called the Kuril Islands in Russia and the “Northern Territory” in Japan are considered to be their main dispute. Russian Security Council Deputy Dmitry Medvedev said in January that Japan must drop its claims over the islands if it is seeking a peace treaty.