Global General

Russian vice PM: visit to disputed islands only for working

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-16 19:06

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia - Russia's Vice Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov said Monday that his visit to disputed Islands had only working purposes and did not mean to "make somebody angry," local media reported.

Ivanov and four other cabinet ministers on Sunday visited Kunashir and Iturup Islands, two of the four disputed islands.

Iturup and Kunashir Islands as well as two other islands form the disputed Southern Kuril islands. The islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, are also claimed by the Japanese government.

He said the main purpose of the visit was to check the progress of the Federal Target Program on Kuril Islands, said a RIA Novosti report.

However, earlier in the day, Japan's Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto told Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Bely that Ivanov's trip to islands was "unacceptable and regrettable" and that Moscow should not arrange any more visits to the islands by senior Russian officials.

Russia and Japan have long been at odds over the sovereignty of the four Pacific islands. The dispute has blocked a peace treaty between the two countries since the end of World War II.