Japan and Russia have agreed that Moscow would stop giving permission to third countries for operating fishing boats around the disputed Kuril islands, news reports said Saturday.
"The governments of Japan and Russia came to a basic agreement that Russia would forgo granting third countries, such as South Korea, rights to fish for saury in waters near the Kuril islands, starting next year," Jiji Press said, quoting Japanese diplomatic sources.
"Japan and Russia...will discuss the matter during next Tuesday's talks in Tokyo between Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Toshiyuki Takano and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov," Kyodo News said, also quoting foreign ministry sources.
A final accord will be signed at an expected meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Russian President Vladimir Putin when they meet during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on October 20 and 21 in China, Jiji said.
"I think we can reach an agreement for the most part during Tuesday's talks," Kyodo quoted a Japanese diplomat as saying.
The dispute emerged after Russia issued South Korean vessels with permits to fish in the area from July 15 to November 15, under an agreement between Seoul and Moscow signed last December.
A Ukrainian fishery firm also received Moscow's approval to fish in the waters, and transferred the rights to Taiwanese fishing boats.
Russia also granted similar approval to North Korea.
The Kuril islands were seized by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II and are in Russia's control. But Japan claims sovereignty over the islets and regards the waters around them as its exclusive economic zone.
The dispute has bedeviled attempts by the two sides to forge a formal peace treaty ending World War II hostilities.
During expert level talks last month, Moscow claimed that Japanese vessels annually take about one billion dollar worth catches in Russian waters, and a half of it is poached, meaning the catches are imported to Japan without going through Russian customs.
In order to settle the fishing rights dispute, Tokyo is expected to promise it would try to prevent poaching in Russian waters, Jiji and Kyodo said.
Japan is also expected to propose further promoting bilateral fishing cooperation, Kyodo said.
"Russia understands the importance of the Japan-Russia relationship. Russia only earns small amount of fee revenues by giving fishing rights to third-party countries," Jiji quoted a diplomatic source as saying - TOKYO (AFP)
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