Japan’s ‘militarisation’ worsens the situation in the Asia-Pacific area, says former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

Japan’s “militarisation” worsens the situation in the Asia-Pacific area, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said on Sunday. Russia and Japan have complicated ties characterised by a decades-long territorial dispute over a handful of tiny, Russian-held islands off the coast of Hokkaido that Moscow refers to as the southern Kurils but Japan claims as its Northern Territories. The disagreement over the territory, which the Soviet Union conquered in the last days of WWII, has stopped Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty that would legally end hostilities. “It is regrettable that the Japanese authorities are pursuing a course towards a new militarisation of the country,” the Russian TASS news agency quoted Medvedev as saying. “Troop exercises are taking place near the Kuril Islands, which seriously complicates the situation in the Asia-Pacific region.” Japan’s foreign ministry and Prime Minister’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment outside business hours. Russia decided this year to declare 3 September, the day after Japan’s surrender in World War Two, a “Day of Victory over Militaristic Japan”, spurring a protest from Tokyo. Medvedev said Japan, with help from the United States, was expanding its military infrastructure and increasing its arms purchases. Japan’s defence ministry on Thursday sought a record $53 billion in next fiscal year’s budget, part of its biggest military buildup since World War Two, aiming to double defence spending to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027, citing an increasingly assertive China and an unpredictable North Korea.