Japan urges Russia to exclude the Kuril Islands from its military exercise zone

July 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Japanese authorities have called on Russia to exclude the Kuril Islands from the area of ​​the next military training to be carried out by its Armed Forces in the eastern part of Russian territory.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) plan, a series of military exercises that will take place between August 30 and September 5 and whose objective will be to “guarantee military security” in the region. eastern part of the country.

After this, Tokyo has come forward and launched a diplomatic protest to Moscow in which it expresses its concern about the training sessions, which could be held in the Kuril Islands, a small archipelago in dispute between the two countries located between the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka.

“We present a firm declaration in the sense that the Northern Territories -formula with which Japan names the Kuriles- must be excluded from the areas for drills”, said the undersecretary of the Japanese Cabinet, at a press conference. Yoshihiko Isozaki.

The archipelago is made up of a group of islands — Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai — inhabited by just a handful of Japanese citizens who were occupied by Soviet troops in World War II.