Abe's "hot springs diplomacy" fails to deliver progress on islands row with Russia

The summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended not in a way Abe had expected despite Abe's strong desire to make headway on the long-standing territorial issue.

"All in all, the Abe administration has suffered big loss as what the Japanese side expected is mostly not achieved," said Zhao Hongwei, a professor with the Tokyo-based Hosei University.

"The Abe-Putin talks concluded with an eight-point economic cooperation agreement. However, there's no result on the territorial dispute, which the Abe administration hoped to solve," Zhao said.

Eager to leave a diplomatic legacy over the territorial disputes over the four small islands in the Pacific, which are called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, Abe had pinned high hopes on the summit and expected some concrete results.

The Japanese prime minister had tried hard to win concessions from Moscow through various diplomatic maneuvers including playing economic card and hosting Putin to hot springs.

To seek a thaw with Moscow, he didn't even insist on Japan's previous stance that it won't cooperate economically with Russia unless progress is made on their territorial issue.

But Putin maintained a tough stance on the territorial issue, which has prevented the two nations from formally signing a peace treaty since the end of WWII.

At a joint press conference with Abe on Friday, Putin stressed the legitimacy of Russian control of the four Pacific islands following WWII, though agreeing on the importance of a peace treaty.

"There are security issues," Putin said. "We have two naval bases in Vladivostok, from where our ships go out to the Pacific. ... We'd like the Japanese side to take all these concerns into account."

"It would be naive to think we can solve this problem in an hour," Putin said, adding that the isles row cannot be solved soon.

"Japan has regarded it (the summit) as an opportunity to solve the territorial disputes on the four Pacific islands. But Putin did not cave in. Japan gained nothing in this aspect," said Ling Xingguang, president of China-Japan Relations Research Institute, a professor emeritus at Fukui Prefectural University.

Valery Kistanov, head of the Center for Japanese Studies of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that there has been no breakthrough related to the peace treaty.

"Japan is playing the economic card in order to reach a political rapprochement. It lies on the surface, as they do not hide the fact that the economic cooperation package reflects Abe's desire to use it as a lever to influence Russia, especially in the conditions when Russia's economic situation is not very good," said the expert.

Abe believes that Putin will appreciate a helping hand from Japan, and that he will agree to meet the territorial wishes of the Japanese. But Russia believes that it should not exchange one for the other, as the two are completely different things, said Kistanov.

The summit has caused disappointment among many Japanese whose hopes for solving the territorial issue were fanned up by Abe's enthusiasm.

"We have to keep in mind that most of people were disappointed," Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters in Tokyo.

In addition to domestic dissatisfaction, Abe also needs to carefully handle the discomfort the summit has caused on Japan's Western allies.

As the first leader among the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialized countries to receive Putin for an official visit since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Abe has irked Japan's major ally -- the United States. Washington is feuding with Moscow over Syria and Crimea, although Japanese diplomats have sought to ease U.S. concerns.

Washington has expressed displeasure with the Abe-Putin summit on a number of occasions in November, voicing concern that the meeting could send the wrong message that the G7 bloc is not totally united in pressuring Moscow.

source: Xinhua