Fishing boats off the coast of Shikotan Island in Crab Bay. Sakhalin region. File photoTOKYO, Jun 14Business cooperation with Sakhalin, the termination of payment for which caused the suspension of the agreement on fishing for Japanese fishermen in the southern Kuriles, which in Japan are called the «northern territories» or «four northern islands», is not included in the scope of the fishing agreement, such a point of view Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said. «The issue of business cooperation with the Sakhalin Region lies outside the scope of the agreement on cooperation in the fishing of Japanese fishing vessels in the area of the four northern territories. We believe that it is not a payment for fishing under the agreement, as in the the Russian side insists. In any case, we will consider the issue of further cooperation, taking into account various circumstances,» the minister said at a press conference.Expert: the Japanese are not satisfied with the consequences of sanctions against RussiaHe stressed that Japan will continue consultations with Russia to renew the agreement. .Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow «consistently considered interaction based on the 1998 agreement between the government of the Russian Federation and the government of Japan on certain issues of cooperation in the field of harvesting marine living resources as one of the important areas of Russian-Japanese relations in the field of fisheries. However, according to her, Tokyo took the line of «freezing» the payments due under the agreement, «delaying the signing of the annual executive document on the provision of gratuitous technical assistance to the Sakhalin Region, which is an integral element in ensuring the functioning of this intergovernmental agreement.» In this regard, the Russian side «decided to suspend the implementation of the 1998 agreement until the Japanese side fulfilled all its financial obligations.» in the framework of business cooperation with the Sakhalin region with an agreement on cooperation in the southern Kuriles, presenting it as «as if (providing technical assistance to Sakhalin) is a precondition.» He noted that this is a cause for regret for the Japanese side.
