OREANDA-NEWS  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised to make every effort to complete negotiations with Russia on a Peace Treaty. On it informs TV channel NHK.

Abe and his wife visited the ancestral home town of Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and visited his father's grave. He, as the Japanese Prime Minister noted, also worked on improving relations between Moscow and Tokyo. Shintaro Abe was the head of the foreign Ministry from 1982 to 1986.

"I swore on the grave of my ancestors on a daily basis to work and to perform your duties. I vowed to do everything in order to progress in the negotiations with Russia regarding the Kuril Islands and put an end to this issue," Abe told reporters accompanying him.

According to him, this year will be a "turning point" in the history of territorial differences between the countries.

Abe said that the issue of ownership of the Kuril Islands can not be resolved without the consent of their inhabitants, Japan claims the Southern Kurile Islands. The Head of the Japanese Government stressed that Tokyo's claims do not involve the eviction of Russians from there.

In November, Abe met with Vladimir Putin. The parties agreed to accelerate negotiations on a peace Treaty on the basis of the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956.

In this document, Tokyo and Moscow expressed their readiness to conclude a peace Treaty, after which the USSR agreed to transfer the Islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan. The parties ratified the Declaration, but then Tokyo refused to implement it, insisting on the return of the four Islands.

 Moscow and Tokyo have been holding consultations for many decades with a view to drawing up a peace Treaty following the Second World War. The main obstacle to this is the ownership of the southern Kuril Islands: after the war, the entire archipelago was included in the Soviet Union, but Tokyo disputes the affiliation of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the group of Islands, which in Japan is called Habomai. As repeatedly stated by the Russian foreign Ministry, the Russian sovereignty over them with appropriate international legal design, not subject to doubt.