War in Ukraine impacts Russia-Japan peace talks

The Ukraine war found an echo in far east Asia with Russia ending the peace talks over what the Russians call Kuril islands and what the Japanese call Northern Territories. There has not been a formal peace treaty between the two countries at the end of the Second World War because of the dispute over the islands. These were occupied by the Russians during the war.

It is to be remembered that Japan was fighting the war as part of the Axis powers comprising Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. And Russia was fighting with the Allies including United States, United Kingdom and France. Of course, the formations took a different turn. At the end of the war, Russia became an ideological enemy of the West in what was seen as battle between democracy and communism. After the defeat in the war following the devastation caused by the atom bombs dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945, Japan became one of the key allies of the world in the 1950s and 1960s, and it has emerged as one of the top industrialised and rich countries and became a member of G7.

Japan imposed economic sanctions on Russia following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine  and it has condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine.  It is based on the Japanese stance on the war in Ukraine that Russia had called off the peace talks which had been dragging on for many years.

Surprisingly, Japan has expressed disappointment at the Russian decision to end talks. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “This entire situation has been created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia’s response to push this onto Russia-Japan relations is extremely unfair and completely unacceptable.” And he went on to say, “Japan must resolutely continue to sanction Russia in cooperation with the rest of the world.” It is an interesting point of view because there are more than a handful of countries which have not condemned Russia nor imposed economic sanctions against it. Kishida is going by the number of countries who supported the UN General Assembly motion condemning Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Defending its position, the Russian foreign ministry said that negotiations were called off because of Japan’s “openly unfriendly positions and attempts to damage the interests of our country.”  Japan’s sanctions were specific. The sanctions were against 76 individuals, seven banks and 12 other organisations including defence officials and Russia’s arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.

Surprisingly, Prime Minister Kishida let it be known that Japan was looking to gas and oil supplies from Russia, especially after the exit of the Western oil majors, Shell and Exxon Mobil. Kishida said Japan valued an opportunity to get an inexpensive energy supply. Russia and Japan were negotiating energy projects in Sakhalin island, Russian territory in the Pacific Ocean, to the north of Japan. Exxon Mobil and Shell had joint energy projects in the Sakhalin. On the other hand, Russia had asked the Western powers negotiating with Iran about its nuclear programme that its (Russia’s) interests should not be damaged because of the war in Ukraine.

The Ukraine war then is becoming more complicated in terms of diplomatic and economic relations. Countries like China and India, which have not voted against Russia in the passing of UN resolutions, have not supported Russian invasion of Ukraine. But they refrained from condemning Russia.  As the war continues to rage in Ukraine, and the talks between Russia and Ukraine show no prospect of breakthrough, countries like Japan seem to find themselves in an unenviable situation. Japan condemned Russia but it was not averse to economic ties with Russia as Western oil majors exited the scene in Sakhalin.