Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday he does not see his country ceding control to Japan of a group of islands at the center of a decades-old bilateral territorial dispute.
"We are not ceding the Kuril Islands to Japan, not begging for a peace treaty," Lavrov was quoted by Russia's Tass news agency as saying in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily website, in reference to the Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido that were seized by Soviet forces at the end of World War II.
The dispute over the islands has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from signing a World War II peace treaty.
Lavrov said his country is "committed to all obligations," including the 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration, which stated that two of the four islands, the smaller Shikotan and Habomai group, will be handed over to Japan following the signing of a peace treaty.
He called the transfer under that accord a "goodwill gesture."
The islands off Hokkaido — Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan as well as the Habomai islets — were seized by the Soviet Union following Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.
He was also quoted as saying it is not possible to discuss a mutually acceptable solution to the isle row if Japan does not recognize the results of World War II.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in their meeting in Sochi, Russia, earlier in May to continue efforts to resolve the row.