Russia, Japan to Continue Looking for Compromise on Kuril Islands Dispute

The Russian and Japanese leaders are committed to finding compromise in the dispute over the South Kuril Islands, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in a recent interview that Japan realized there was no use negotiating the handover of what it deems its "Northern Territories."

"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe agreed to continue political consultations on the territorial dispute at the foreign ministers’ level… The search for a common ground will continue, and the two leaders confirmed their political will to do so," Peskov told journalists.

The two leaders came together in the southern Russian city of Sochi last May. They agreed an 8-point roadmap on how to address the territorial dispute, which was tabled by Tokyo.