wiredinUSA July 2018

Island cable causes protest

Moscow’s steadfast refusal to return the Kuril Islands to Japanese control has stopped both countries from signing a post-war peace treaty. Maintaining control of the islands ensures Russia’s Vladivostok-based fleet has access to the Pacific Ocean through a strait that does not freeze in winter. In 2016 the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to discuss joint economic projects on the disputed islands, but without any progress to date.

Control of the Kuril Islands has been disputed by Japan and Russia since the end of the Second World War. Tokyo is now protesting against Russian plans to lay an undersea fiber optic cable to the islands. The cable is planned to stretch between the Russian Far East and the Russian- controlled Kuril Islands that Japan also claims as its Northern Territories. “It’s extremely regrettable, as such a project is proceeding under the Russian occupation that has no legal basis,” said Japanese government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga. Tokyo has also complained to China over the involvement of the Chinese multinational Huawei Technologies in the project. Russia lost the islands after it was defeated by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). Soviet troops recaptured them towards the end of World War II, forcing some 17,000 Japanese residents to flee to the nearby Japanese island of Hokkaido.

The disputed region where Russia plans to lay an undersea fiber optic cable. Photograph courtesy of dw.com

33

wiredInUSA - July 2018