Russia sees no chance to resume peace talks with Japan: Official

MOSCOW - Russia currently sees no opportunity of resuming peace treaty negotiations with Japan due to Tokyo's confrontational stance, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko was quoted as saying by TASS news agency on Friday.

"Joint provocative military activity with the United States and other NATO member states is demonstratively increasing off our Far Eastern shores. At the same time, Japan is providing direct material and technical assistance to the Kyiv regime," Rudenko said in an interview with Russian daily Izvestia. "In such conditions, we do not see an opportunity to resume talks with Tokyo on concluding a fundamental document that was intended to become the basis for long-term good-neighborly relations."

Rudenko said that since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022, the Japanese government has pursued a policy of dismantling bilateral relations, which had been built through mutual efforts over decades.

"The normalization of intergovernmental dialogue is impossible without concrete practical steps from Tokyo to abandon its hostile anti-Russian policies, which are leading to the final destruction of our ties and an overall escalation of tensions in the Asia-Pacific region," Rudenko added.