Japan should not set a time limit on the settlement of its territorial row with Russia so that the people of both countries can be fully satisfied with the final resolution, according to former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko.
Kiriyenko, a presidential representative in Russia's new federal district along the Volga, told Japanese reporters this week that the Japanese and Russian people "need to accept the proposal as fair," adding that it will be difficult to conclude a peace treaty as proposed by the end of the year.
"Without settling the territorial row, there is no way a peace treaty can be concluded," Kiriyenko, on a personal visit to Japan, said in a joint interview in Tokyo with Kyodo News and two other news organizations.