Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has given up on reaching a broad agreement on a Japan-Russia peace treaty when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June amid persisting differences over how to settle a long-standing territorial dispute, a government source said Thursday.
Instead, the two leaders may agree on visa-free travel between the Russian-held region where the four disputed islands are located and Hokkaido when they meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, the source said.
Abe had been hoping to secure a promise from Putin to hand over two of the islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as the Southern Kurils.