Hoping Positive Future

Two men shaking hands with smile were looking at domestic politics, rather than the future of bilateral negotiation. Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, met with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at Kremlin, the Russian Presidential Office in Moscow, on Monday. They agreed with accelerating the negotiation for peace treaty with making economic cooperation a driving force for that. It is still not easy, however, for both nations to settle the dispute over the Northern Territory of Japan, which is a remnant of the Cold War.

The achievement of the official visit of Japanese leader to Russia for the first time in a decade, or the joint statement, was to have agreed with annual visit of both foreign ministers each other, expanding of cooperation over energy resource mainly petroleum and natural gas, and condemning North Korea that rejected dismantling nuclear weapons and missile project. Abe invited Putin to visit Japan next year and Putin appreciated.

Both leaders had good reason to want to rebuild their bilateral relationship with each other. For Abe, the biggest problem he had in Asia-Pacific region was China. To deal with Senkaku issue, he needed to find as much friends as he can in the region. Moreover, allowing Russia to cooperate with China over territorial issue against Japan, adding to South Korea, must be a nightmare for Japanese diplomacy. Having no achievement in international relationship as PM, Abe needed to get positive gain in diplomacy with any possible counterparts.

Threatened by shale gas revolution, Putin needed to find as much market as he can to sell energy resource in Russia. Japan, suffered from energy shortage caused by the accident in the nuclear plant in Fukushima, still a good market they can count on. Both leaders also agreed the launching a platform for encouraging investments. To show positive sign, Abe brought a major delegation of economic sector in Japan.

Is it fair to say that accelerated negotiation and economic cooperation would be a great achievement of the leaders’ talk? No, actually. They could not write words down in the joint statement how to solve the dispute over the Northern Territory. Although two countries formerly agreed with having a peace treaty by solving problem over sovereignty of those four islands, the joint statement has no “sovereignty” or “territory.” Abe and Putin agreed with seeking a conclusion acceptable for both parties. Nobody knows whether there is such a conclusion in the world. In other words, solving the territorial issue harms at least one of them. The biggest achievement for both,therefore, was to have a political tool to sell their effort to the nations.