08:29 June 8, 2022.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation suspended the implementation of the agreement between the governments of Russia and Japan of 1998. It determined the issues of cooperation between countries in the field of harvesting marine living resources. It was about the territory near Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Lesser Kuril Ridge.
The statement appeared on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, it was signed by the official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova. The text says the following:
This agreement, built on the basis of taking into account the balance of interests of the two countries, allowed Japanese fishermen to fish within the quota allocated by the Russian side near the southern Kuril Islands of the Russian Federation.
Unfortunately, Tokyo has taken 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 the current situation, we are forced to make a decision to suspend the implementation of the 1998 agreement until the Japanese side fulfills all its financial obligations.
The Russian side did not disclose the specific amounts in question. Information about how many different types of products Japan can produce on a paid basis is rare. In 2017-2018, it was about 2180 tons of fish, which can be caught off the Kuril Islands. It is unlikely that the volume has changed significantly in recent years. At the same time, the Land of the Rising Sun paid 21.3 million yen for production (11.2 million rubles at the old rate). Foreigners provided research equipment worth 21.1 million yen (11.1 million rubles).
Japanese vessels have been fishing near the Kuril Islands for a long time, and sometimes this ends with arrests. For example, in 2019 five schooners were caught border guards. It turned out that they exceeded the amount of octopus catch stipulated by those very quotas. Russian fishermen are not happy with the neighborhood with foreign colleagues, so sometimes our citizens have to ask cherish to someone else’s property.