Russia is interested in signing peace treaty with Japan

Russia is interested in signing a peace treaty with Japan, the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, has said following the negotiations between the Russian President with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi.

According to Ivanov, the absence of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan hampers the increasing development of bilateral cooperation.

Signing a peace treaty would mean "complete normalization" of the relations between the two countries, Ivanov noted.

At the same time the Russian Foreign Minister stressed that the two countries' stances on the so-called territorial problem, or national identity of the four South Kuril islands, incorporated into the Soviet Union territory after Japan's defeat in World War II, are well known and have remained intact.