Japan's top government spokesman on Wednesday called Russia's move to fortify its presence on disputed western Pacific islands "very regrettable", the latest in a series of diplomatic tit-for-tat exchanges over the issue.
The comment by Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano follows an Interfax news agency report on Tuesday citing the Russian military’s General Staff as saying Russia would arm the sparsely populated islands with anti-ship missiles and attack helicopters.
"A Russian military build-up on the northern islands runs counter to our position and is very regrettable," Edano said at a regular news conference.
Sovereignty over the windswept islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, has been a constant irritant in bilateral ties since Soviet troops took them over at the end of World War Two.
But Russia denied any build-up on the islands, Kyodo news agency reported. Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov told his Japanese counterpart, Kenichiro Sasae, that the planned military realignment was aimed at cutting armed personnel through modernisation of equipment, Kyodo said, quoting unnamed Japanese government officials.
Russo-Japanese relations sharply deteriorated after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited one of the islands in November, the first visit by a Kremlin leader.
Relations worsened further last month when Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the trip an "unforgivable outrage".
On Wednesday Russia’s foreign ministry warned relations with Japan could weaken further if Japanese ultra-nationalists were not prosecuted for "desecrating" the Russian flag outside the Russian embassy in Tokyo in February.
Denisov was in Tokyo to hold a strategic dialogue with Sasae, the first such talks in more than a year.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said they discussed bilateral relations and the world situation including nuclear proliferation in the context of the Korean peninsula.
Statements from both governments on the dialogue omitted specific mention of the islands or Russian military plans.
