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Russia, Japan sign economic accord
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-21 18:46
The Russian Cabinet last year endorsed the Japanese-backed route to the
Pacific coast, but then decided the destination for its first stage would be
near the Chinese border.
Putin, who first visited Japan in September 2000, has reaffirmed Moscow's
adherence to a 1956 declaration in which the Soviet Union said it was ready to
hand two of the four islands in the Kuril chain to Japan.
But officials in Tokyo said Japan wants all four islands back, and talks have
stalled.
"The territorial dispute is certainly an extremely difficult issue and it is
not an issue that can be solved easily," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo
Abe said earlier Monday.
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