Russian President Vladimir Putin held all the cards in the Kuril Islands negotiations with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on 15-16 December. Amid a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape there were advances, but those who expected that the two leaders would, at one stroke, resolve the decades-old territorial dispute, were disappointed.
Putin politely declined to bathe with Abe in Nagato’s famed hot springs, subtly signalling that Russia-Japan relations have not yet matured sufficiently for such an intimacy to happen.
However, the summit did result in some deliverables. The two sides agreed to start consultations on arrangements for joint economic development of the disputed …read more
Lukewarm on Putin-Abe Hot Springs Summit
