According to him, "Japan always closely follows Russia's actions around the four northern islands."
“With regard to this issue, on June 17 we made a presentation due to the fact that this does not coincide with the position of our country on the four northern islands and cannot be accepted,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
According to him, the Japanese government intends to continue negotiations with the Russian side "on the basis of a basic position on resolving the territorial problem and concluding a peace treaty."
Geological surveys are conducted in the Sea of Okhotsk between Sakhalin, Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. Russia warned Japan of three months of work.
In February, Russian and Japanese Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Toshimitsu Motegi met in Munich.
Following the meeting, Motegi said that negotiations with Russia regarding the problems of concluding a peace treaty are moving to a new stage.