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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has landed on a remote island chain that was contolled by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two. The trip looks likely to reignite a long-standing territorial dispute with Japan.
The Russian government has confirmed that the Prime Minister has arrived on Kunashir Island along with a delegation of officials. Medvedev says the trip is about visiting national projects on the islands and meeting with locals. He also said that the practice of official visits to the territory will continue under the new government.
Medvedev caused an uproar in Japan in 2010 when he became the first Russian leader to visit the disputed island chain known as the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan. After the visit, Medvedev promised to send more modern arms to an artillery division deployed on the archipelago. Russia occupied the Southern Kuriles chain in 1945, but Japan still claims it as its own.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (L) speaks with
Sakhalin Governor Alexander Horoshavin during his visit
to the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk fish factory on the island of
Kunashir, part of the Southern Kuriles Islands chain,
July 3, 2012.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (L) talks to Konstantin Korobkov,
director of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk fish factory, on the far eastern Russian
island of Kunashir, part of the Southern Kuriles island chain, July 3, 2012.
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visits the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk fish
factory on the island of Kunashir, part of the Southern Kuriles Islands
chain, July 3, 2012.
中国公共网摘编：GAN JADE |
