The Government of Japan protested in connection with the decision of Russia to limit the passage of foreign vessels in the area of disputed islands in the north of the country.
As the Secretary of the Japanese Government Yoshimas Hayashi said at a press conference, the Russian side notified Tokyo that until midnight on May 1, the right to pass the “foreign military and civilian vessels” through the water space near the islands.
The Japanese official emphasized that Tokyo considers such actions unacceptable and has already expressed a protest on diplomatic channels.
General General Government said that only Russian courts to pass the passage of Japan’s territorial waters, in connection with which Tokyo sent a note of protest through diplomatic channels.
The official Japanese agency Kyodo said that in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, foreign vessels have the right to pass through the territorial waters of another state if their presence does not pose a threat to security.
Earlier, Japanese media reported with reference to the statement of the organization subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Defense on the introduction of restrictions on the movement of foreign military and government vessels in the waters around the Kuril Islands from April 16 to May 1
– The dispute around the Kuril Islands
In 1945, at the end of World War II, the Soviet Union annexed the Kuril Islands – an archipelago that stretched from the Russian Peninsula of Kamchatka to the Japanese Island of Hokkaido, separating the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk.
Since then, the territorial dispute around these lands, which in Japan is called “northern territories”, prevents the conclusion of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan. Attempts by the parties to achieve a compromise in the negotiations are still unsuccessful.
– the Russian Foreign Ministry protested to the Embassy of Japan
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that on April 17, the Embassy of Japan in Moscow announced a decisive protest in connection with the plans for holding Hokkaido Island in June 2025 in the immediate vicinity of the borders of the Russian Federation of SSM-1 anti-ship complexes equipped with Type-88 missiles with a radius of defeat up to 200 km.
“The Russian side regarding the similar provocative military activity of the Far Eastern borders of Russia as a potential threat to national security and considers it categorically unacceptable,” follows from the publication in the Telecologram channel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on Thursday, April 17
The department noted that such actions of Tokyo lead to an increase in a degree of tension in North-Eastern Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.
“Russia reserves the right to undertake all the necessary countermeasures in order to stop threats to its safety at the Far Eastern borders,” the foreign policy said.