MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not assembling peace treaty proposals for President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to Japan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told readers of the daily newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta Thursday. Putin is scheduled to visit Japan on November 20, 2005 after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.
"We live without a peace treaty and this does not hamper the development of overall cooperation...Our Japanese counterparts understand that this problem cannot be resolved today," Lavrov said, adding that Moscow and Tokyo are drafting some 15 documents for the visit.
"They are related to additional legislative frameworks and extra practical agreements on the development of trade and economic cooperation, particularly, in the high-tech sphere."
He said that Russia and Japan already have a joint plan of action.
"We will continue developing cooperation and discussing the peace treaty."
The minister said statements by some Japanese politicians that the development of investment cooperation with Russia was possible only after the signing of a peace treaty were unjustified.
"Japan has a market economy and the private sector cannot be forced to do anything," he said, pointing to the construction of a Toyota car factory in St. Petersburg.
Last week, Putin said Russia and Japan needed joint work and trust to resolve the territorial problem.
"If we want to resolve it someday, we should work, meet and trust each other and promote cooperation."
Japan is demanding that Russia return what it calls the Northern Territories (four Southern Kurile Islands) that the Soviet Union allegedly seized at the end of WWII in 1945.
Russia acknowledges there is a territorial problem with Japan, but has rejected the ultimatum. It has proposed settling the territorial dispute on the basis of a 1956 declaration, meaning Russia would cede two of the islands to Japan as a goodwill gesture after the conclusion of a bilateral political treaty on friendship.
