MOSCOW - A protest was lodged with the German Embassy in Moscow on August 4 in connection with statements made by German Ambassador to Japan Petra Sigmund about the South Kuril Islands. This was announced by the Russian Foreign Ministry on 4 August.
"A strong protest has been lodged with the German Embassy in Moscow in connection with unacceptable statements made by German Ambassador to Japan Petra Sigmund on July 25, who questioned Russian sovereignty and jurisdiction over the South Kuril Islands," the website said.
The ministry described the ambassador's statement as a complete interference in the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the South Kurils became part of the country legally after the Second World War. According to the publication, Russian sovereignty over the archipelago is indisputable.
Earlier, on January 24, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that relations between Moscow and Tokyo are in a complicated state, but the island state still supports the idea of resolving the "territorial issue" and concluding a peace treaty. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for his part, noted that Tokyo was taking an apparently hostile stance towards Moscow.
gnews.cz - GH
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