Trust Should Be Keystone of Russian-Japanese Peace Treaty - Lawmaker

The work on preparing the Russian-Japanese peace treaty as well as cooperation in other spheres should be carried out in the atmosphere of mutual trust, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament Valentina Matvienko said on Tuesday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) – The delegation of the upper house of the Russian parliament headed by Matvienko is currently on a visit to Japan.

"Any sphere of cooperation we are speaking about – the work on preparing the peace treaty, boosting our economic cooperation – in all spheres the most important thing is to form the atmosphere of trust between our countries and peoples. And, of course, the parliaments are playing a special role here," Matvienko said.

Japan and Russia did not sign a permanent peace treaty after World War II due to Tokyo's claims to four Russian islands, the Southern Kurils: Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai.

The relations between the two states have recently been re-energized. In September, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took part in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, during which he held three-hour talks with the Russian president. One of the outcomes of the meeting was the announcement of Putin's visit to Japan on December 15, which had been postponed from 2014.