Russia’s Medvedev: Japan’s ‘militarisation’ complicates Asia-Pacific

Japan’s “militarisation” complicates the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council and former President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday.
Russia and Japan have complex relations marked by decades of territorial dispute over a handful of small, Russian-held islands off Hokkaido that Moscow calls the southern Kurils but Japan claims as its Northern Territories.
The dispute over the area, which the Soviet Union seized in the final days of World War Two, has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from reaching a peace treaty formally ending hostilities.
“It is regrettable that the Japanese authorities are pursuing a course towards a new militarisation of the country,” the Russian TASS news agency quoted Medvedev as saying.
“Troop exercises are taking place near the Kuril Islands, which seriously complicates the situation in the Asia-Pacific region.”